subject: Bring Passion To Your Play And Gain A Real-life Fountain Of Youth [print this page] What would the child you were think of the adult you've become?
When we're children, our needs and wants are remarkably simple. We want to be happy, and we need the grown-ups around us to provide an environment that will give us the opportunity to do that through play. As we age we still want to be happy, but we look for that happiness in relationships and work and the four walls that we call home.
Play is something that we forget to do as we grow older. This may well be the result of the pessimists in our life telling us to grow up and be responsible, or face the consequences. If we're not careful, we're told, we'll end up still living in our parents' house in middle-age, playing video games all day and delivering pizza. Se we work hard, get a job, form adult relationships. Meanwhile, as these responsibilities grow ever larger, a little part of who we really are dies inside of us.
You Grow Old Without Passion in Your Life
When we're children, we express our passions through play. This helps us to stay happy and interesting, and helps time go by. If the child you were could see the adult you've become, what would they make of you? Would kid-you think that adult-you was fantastic? Or would kid-you be pretty unimpressed and hurry off to find some cooler friends?
When you were young, which adults did you find boring? I'd wager it wasn't the adults who spent hours playing soccer in the yard, helped you to learn how to ride a bike, or who took you on all those trips to the park. More likely, it was the grown-ups who gave you a snack and some crayons and told you to go and watch some TV, while they continued watching The Price is Right.
Don't get me wrong. I'm a long-time fan of Wheel of Fortune. My addiction to that and Jeopardy! trace all the way back to childhood. My long-suffering grandmother had to drag me with her to Bible study, and her (extremely cool) friends would hook me up with Smarties and zucchini bread and that night's pass to testing my intellect.
What I recall about my time with these women, however, is not the hours spent watching television. It's the nights that we'd hop into the car for a joyride at 10 p.m., because my companions were sick of being indoors (or, possibly, hoping that the ride would send me off to sleep). Or the days that we'd stay indoors and set up a game of horseshoes because it was snowing heavily outside. Or after church on a Sunday when these 60 and 70 year old women would take the kids outside for a game of kickball. They were pretty competitive, too.
I'd Have Laughed if Someone Had Referred to These Women as Old...
...Seriously. My grandmother and her friends lived their lives with an energy and passion which kept them youthful, even when they were long past the age that society traditionally deems old. They'd probably earned the rest, but that didn't make them want to just cope with life and daily responsibilities, and then collapse in front of the television at the end of the day. These women remembered how to play, and they played hard, and with enthusiasm and zeal.
They knew that play can be the fountain of youth, and it can be for you too.
by: Bruce S Tulio
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