Men Playing
Play is different from competition activities. I know they say sports are not about winning or losing, but how you play the game. But if that’s true, why do they keep score? I’m not downgrading sports. Sports have an ability to build many positive character traits. They are enjoyable to play and a thrill to watch. Sometimes they are fun, sometimes they are not. On the other hand, play is always fun. And the camaraderie of play will always build friendships and bond a group. Men instinctively like to play, but it is something that society tries to extinguish in us. Think about school, how many times did you hear “Stop horsing around.” or “Stop goofing off.”? In school, participation in sports was praised and celebrated at pep rallies and academic success was recognized on the Dean’s List. However, no one rewarded the guy who inspired the students to play during class. And think about this too: the fun person motivating the play was almost always a male. Play is one of the most masculine traits we have and it is the one male trait that society most tries to subvert or eliminate.
Back in the 1970’s, my wife and I took a training course with the emerging New Games Foundation. For me, it was an eye opener to the fun of play. Adults played Tag, Blob, Vampire, Knots and Samurai Warrior. The New Games Foundation is still a great source for ideas. Their web site is www.inewgames.com . They state on their site:
“Through the games we play and the way we play them, we encourage participation, creativity, and personal expression. The playful spirit is free to emerge from within. As partners rather than opponents, we compete against the limits of our own abilities instead of against each other. Ultimately, in playing together, we learn to live together.”
I was told that the New Games Foundation started as a result of a peace demonstration. At the demonstration, a large ball was painted like an earth globe. The speaker said that there are two kinds of people in the world: those that want to push the world over that edge in one direction and those that want to push it off the other end. To demonstrate this, participants started pushing the big ball. But as it turned out they were having so much fun that everyone started joining in and then a strange thing happened. When one team was about to win, people changed sides. Having fun was more important than winning. The game went on for hours, with the participants laughing, getting dirty, sweating, smiling, and becoming aware that fun is an important part of our life.
