Permission to Live Playfully
Show Notes
Show Notes
Identify Your Play Nature (questions to consider) https://nifplay.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/take-your-play-history-2023.08.02.pdf
Play Personality Quiz - National Institute for Play
Understanding your Play Style - An Illustrated Guide to Play Types
And for those who like to dive a little deeper, including some neurological foundations of play ...Why We Play - National Institute for Play
Tracy's "Time to Play" Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7FC5r1sRjAJDjXEP46neri?si=dpKk8t6fRcOVqPRf9m6_6Q&pi=c20Cnw6CTk-o5
Primary Books, Referenced Directly:
The God Who Plays: A Playful Approach to Theology and Spirituality by Brian Edgar
Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Dr Stuart Brown
Dangerous Wonder by Michael Yaconelli
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Transcript
Tracy
Welcome, listeners, to our conversation today where we will be discussing play. I'm Tracy, I'm your host today, and I'm here with our fellow Puzzlers once again. Hello, Puzzlers.
Puzzlers (overlapping)
Hello, Tracy. Hello. Hi.
Tracy
We are discussing play, but we're also exploring more specifically the question, “Why is it so hard to live playfully?” Now our brains are actually sculpted by play, and they love to play with questions.
So, right from the start, I'm going to give your brain something to play with. Do you consider yourself a playful person?
And play comes in all different kinds of shapes and sizes, and one of the ways I play is in collecting, and collecting quotes - and rocks and books! My husband said, my house will never blow away because I might collections, but I thought, I'm just going to start us off with some quotes. Do I have permission to not take it all seriously and just have some fun? Can I give myself permission to do that? So that's what we're going to do. I'm going to read you some quotes.
“Play … without it, life just doesn't taste good.” – Lucia Capocchione
“We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.” – George Bernard Shaw
Sue
Absolutely.
Tracy
“We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.” – Charles Schaefer
This was a big one for me …
“The opposite of play is not work. It's depression.” – Dr Stuart Brown
“When in peril, play disappears.” – Dr Stuart Brown
And then, poetry, I love this line from “As Kingfishers Catch Fire” –
“Christ plays in ten thousand places.” – Gerard Manley Hopkins
“Only a playful way of living does justice to the seriousness of life.” – Brian Edgar
“Playfulness is a modern expression of hope.” – Michael Yaconelli
And I want to sit on that last one for just a minute. Playfulness is a modern expression of hope. We can look at the world around us, whether the world at large or the world within, and think, “Play? No way!” But what if play - authentic, faith fueled, identity-led play - is exactly what the world is needing?
As I talk about this with friends, the most common themes that come up, beyond being ‘too busy’- Right? And I think you ladies are probably busy! That's one of the most common things making [that keep us from] making room for play. But beyond being too busy, what I was hearing is we don't know what play even really looks like, or we feel guilty. Guilty if we don't play. Guilty if we do play.
So … 20 years ago I heard these words from a speaker, “Wake up, church! God is having way more fun than you are!” And that really echoed. It's echoed through me ever since. So, without revisiting that guilt, because that's not my heart at all in this I've come to believe that if the Good News is really good news, then we, as believers, are free to be the most joyful and playful people on the planet.
Are we? Am I? And if not, what gets in the way? And this doesn't mean things are always shiny and pretty, but it's that Presence - “In his Presence is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11) - that can come through in all of those places where there’s even the opposite of play – it’s not work - it's depression. The joy of the Lord is our strength. (Nehemiah 8:10c)
And so, if not, if we're not the most joyful and playful people on the planet, knowing we are free to be that, what gets in the way? And we are called a people of hope. (1Thess 4:13c) “Playfulness is a modern expression of hope. Does the world see playful, joy-filled hope in us?
And I have a beautiful friend who has been a part of this conversation with me. When asked about play, she said – “It is literally non-existent … It doesn't enter my world … In this area of play, I just haven't got a clue! … I'm a responsibility magnet.” Anyone else resonate with that?
She continues, “I think the heart of play is about remembering to be a child … We get so serious! We need to be more dependent, which sounds crazy in our Western world of self-sufficiency and self-reliance … And I think that when we get to that place of dependency with God, then play is a kind of natural thing that will express itself so completely uniquely, according to who we are. – (And don't miss this!) - Play is a natural fruit of trusting in God.”
In his book, God at Play, Brian Edgar writes, “Play is the essential and ultimate form of relationship with God. A playful attitude lies at the very heart of all spirituality and is critical for the whole life … Play is the most perfect expression of life … completely reliant on the grace of God.”
So, at the risk of sounding irreverent, I believe that while God is holy, holy, just, omnipotent, omniscient, and every other transcendent attribute we can name. He's also loving, joyful, and I'll dare to say it, playful!
I believe that the God who sits high and enthroned is also the God who draws near us and calls us friends. He is a God who smiles, laughs, and plays, often with a twinkle in his eye.
A.W. Tozer wrote, “What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” How do you see God? Is he smiling? What I see in my heart, as we enter into this whole conversation, is that He has His hand held out to you, to me, to each of us, inviting us to come and play.
So, coming back to the surface, because I am one, I don't do small talk! …so, we did a deep dive there, but shifting gears, but not really … let's look more specifically at play.
What is play? And the simplest way I have to give us something concrete to work with is drawn from the work of Dr Stuart Brown, founder of the National Play Institute, and his book Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul. I think its title gives so much, even there, too.
He writes, “It is difficult to give an exact definition of play, because it's so varied. For one person, dangling hundreds of feet above the ground, held there by only a few calloused fingers on a granite cliff, is ecstasy. For someone else, it is stark terror. Gardening may be wonderful for some, but for others -Hello [that’s me!] - a sweaty bore. Play is a state of mind, a state of being, rather than an activity … Play is an absorbing, apparently purposeless activity that provides enjoyment and a suspension of self-consciousness and sense of time. It is also self-motivating, and makes you want to do it again… Play enlivens us. It eases our burdens. It renews our natural sense of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities.”
So that was a whole lot of mouthfuls, but I think you can see why play is just tip of the tip of the tip of the iceberg. And I thought, it's such a rich, rich topic. And what I remember from Sue saying in one of our introductory conversations last season is having these conversations in the context of our faith, and when you even do research, there is not - there's lots of conversation around play in “secular spaces”, but you don't see it as much within a Christian context. Hence, part of my question within this is “What is play, and why?”
So, friends and fellow Puzzlers, play is done richly in community and conversation, so we're going to play, and some of the best friendships in my life are the ones that can go from deep, deep, deep to silly to deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep to silly.
So, together, though, I want to paint a picture of play. When you think about play - I just want to brain dump here, you can overlap or whatever - what kind of things come to mind when you think about play? What words come to mind?
Sue
I've always loved the word frolicking. To me sounds … it's a playful word. You know what I mean? But also have, like, when's the last time you guys frolicked? I love that.
Tracy
Like galloping!
Val
Laughing. Colours, like bright colors.
Sue
I've got finger painting.
Val
Finger painting, yep. Bouncing. Lightness. Children. Open sky. Freedom, like, a kite, open sky, that kind of thing.
Tracy
Movement. There's a lot of movement in that too, right? A lot of them twirling, you know, skipping makes me think of that.
Sue
Water comes to mind for me. I mean it's water is, it's my soul space too. But also, I just find it so such a place to play, like whether you're swimming or I used to dive down at the bottom of the pool and then spring back up to the top. Water's playful for me.
Tracy
Any words, Catherine?
Catherine
Exploring. Just for the joy of a new adventure or seeing something new, like colour, sensory, very sensory for me. Like a detective and like on the hunt kind of thing. And yeah, just really experiencing being present. Experiencing laughter.
Tracy
And that's one of the comments he made that state of being and being present. It is that ‘in the moment’ kind of place so often, and we talked about children, and Val mentioned children. The word child comes to mind. I often think of how as believers, we, I think of John in one of his, letters where he said, “I call you of children of God, for that is what you are.” (1 John 3:1b) And do we give ourselves permission to be childlike with a God who, as Jesus, drew the children … We were talking early about Anne of Green Gables. I love Anne of Green Gables… And in one of her, one of the earliest parts of her story, she walks into a parlor, sees a picture of Jesus blessing the children, and Marilla comes in like, “Where are you? What are you doing?” And she had been imagining herself being one of the children. And Marilla says, “Oh, it just sounds so irreverent”, and Anne just says, “Oh, I was feeling so very reverent in that moment!” Right. So that place of … childlike place. So, thinking go ahead …
Catherine
It's so interesting. Like when Jesus says, unless you become like a little child And the realization I had was like, kids are curious. We've lost curiosity. We're like, what does it mean to be truly curious and wonder, wonder.
Sue
And not concerned about what other people are thinking. I think that's one of the things that keeps us from really playing as adults is the structure and what we're “supposed to” - Oh, there's my air quotes! But, how we appear. And so, I even know a lot of people who won't, even if they go dancing with friends, they won't dance because they feel like they can't. They “I don't know how I look, silly”. Children don't have none of that. Children have none of that.
Val
They're much freer. We're very confined, restricted.
Catherine
Sports. All those pieces for a lot of like for a lot of these kids are struggles, because what if I don't do it right?
Sue
I'm loving having grandchildren in my life, like that has just opened up play again for sure.
Tracy
Yes! And then, so we're talking about children. So, one of the things, when Dr Stuart Brown, he's done decades of research, he calls them ‘play histories’. And one of those pieces is “How did you play as a child?” And so that can inform us about ourselves as well. So, I'd like to hear some of that from you, how did you play as a child?
He calls them play memories. Do you have a play memory? And in sharing that one too, whatever kind of comes, what was special about it? What made it so unique for you? That made you - because play is something where you can- lose a sense of time? You can want to repeat it over and over. You're not as self-aware in the sense that you're just, like we said, like children just free, they're not worried.
So, any play memories from you ladies?
Val
I remember a lot of fun things, but my sisters and I, and my cousins from next door, we'd all be in the basement for hours and make choreographed music videos. So, we'd all dress up, do our hair, lip sync to this popular music, and then we when we had it ready, our parents would come down to watch the presentation.
Sue
Oh yes! The show! Did you sell tickets?
Val
Yes, I did! It's special because we laughed and we sang, and we were always bouncing around on this old mattress that my parents had stored in the basement, and we loved being together and collaborating, make believe, although I was the oldest, so I was probably actually bossy! But it's probably why I liked it! And then, when the parents came down and they praised us, you know, for what we had done, and they were happy to enjoy it with us. So. Yeah. Good, good play memory.
Tracy
And some community pieces. And, play can be solo and play is also very rich in community.
Sue
So much of my childhood play revolves around my brother Michael. We’re two years apart. And we used to sit and play Legos for hours. Now this is before Lego kits people, so it was just Lego blocks, and we would build. Maybe this is why I still have a fascination with architecture and structures and design, but we would sit for hours and sometimes we talked and sometimes we didn't, you know. But I, just such a strong connection with him. We also wrote bikes a lot, played in the pool a lot, like my brother was probably my closest playmate for a lot of time. So, but yeah, kind of, yeah, those would be … but sitting on the floor with my brother and Legos, that's probably my strongest thing.
Catherine
Exploring and imagining and creating with somebody else or alone, right? Those are like pieces for me to remember. I think we were laughing before, we were talking about concoctions and things that we created with someone. So, you know, with my sister, like the pretend Easy-Bake oven with that like swingarm light that you could actually cook something that we mixed together or, you know, mixing lipsticks or whatever, like just those kinds of pieces. But also, like just crawling down into the grass and looking at, like the bugs, to me, like this wonderful world of something unseen. And, you know, actually watching people and imagining their story, like, who are they, where they come from, and creating those pieces, and scribbling into notepads before I could even write words, songs, poems, stories. And, to be honest, as that grew, reading encyclopedias was play for me. Like I just loved learning! And I think somebody said learning when we started too, right?
Tracy
Well, I love that because what I hear within that, I hear reflections. It's neat to hear you, each lady, sharing that because as we get to know each other, I see things in your stories that I see, and I have the advantage of knowing. Question 3 before we get there. But also, what I hear, Sue, you mentioned like that playing with Lego, maybe that's where my interest in architecture, you know, those kind of things from the exploring, those, you know, there's hints of that.
And I do want to honor this, that first that quote that said, like where there is, I'm not going to remember the exact quote, but where there has been pain, where there is peril, play, disappear. So, I do want to honor and recognize that reflecting on childhood is not always easy. So, I do want to really honor and name that.
But that being said, and someone said about wonder, one book that I've really loved - it's going to be books for me pretty much always! - But there's one called Dangerous Wonder, and it is really about the heart of a child and the heart as a child, as children of God. But he has this one line that says, “Somewhere along the way we had our childhood chased out of us.” And I thought, that is so, so powerful. And then I sit with that question. It's been a really significant, that book particularly, and the quote that I mentioned from Brian Edgar, God at Play, is because play has always been a question mark for me. My husband would say. “Have fun!” I'm like, “WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?! I don't know what that means. You're driving me crazy!”
And part of that as we look, you know, the question, it’s considered a playful question like, “What did what did you want as a child? What did you want to be as a child?” Well, as I reflect on that, my family dynamic, my family's 10 to 47 years older than me. My parents were 41 and 47 when I was born. My sisters are 10 to 15 years older than me. So, when I came to an answer on that question, what I wanted to be when I was little, was an adult…and we lived in the country, so when I think play community…?
And then within that, the obstacle which I'd like to lean into for me at that point, not now, but recognizing it is the desire to be taken seriously, which is hand in hand with adulthood. And I really appreciated, as we begin to think about what obstacles, what have taken that play from you, or distract you - beyond being busy, which is common denominator, really, for most of us, it ties into Val's conversation around rest, right? I really appreciated some Carla White, based on her experience and her clients, she offers six reasons why we don't play, and we can't dive into all of these, but just listener, too, maybe it's something that catches your thoughts, to begin to frame some of this for you, as well as what the Puzzlers will share.
And she just said - perfectionism, fixed mind set, extreme stress, guilt/shame, comparanoia - which is a word I really love because she said - this is a perhaps a little side piece, but it was freeing when she said about comparanoia, because it's totally normal to compare ourselves. And that was really liberating for me, because comparing ourselves and comparanoia, from my head and thinking, are two different categories - And this has come up before, fear.
So, Puzzlers, do you find yourself still playing as an adult? Do you consider yourself a playful person? And if not, why not? What are the obstacles that you find coming up? Or, do you see, like Sue mentioned, things from your childhood that you're seeing, either way, the adult and the obstacles, or that child in your adulthood?
Sue
My work is very creative, so I feel like I get to play often. I was just an event situation, planning for an event where I got to build life size, and actually larger than life size, cornstalk goddesses, for work. I mean, it's totally playful. It's totally imaginative. It's so fun to just grab it, all kinds of different, materials and supplies and create. So, for me, a lot of my work is very playful.
But, what I will say is what I've realized as I grow up, kind of going back to my other comment, physical play, I find a little more, daunting, awkwardness, you know? But I've tried to remedy that a little bit by taking some of my daughter's classes because she does movement classes, and the first time I went, and their community, I use air quotes around the word classes because you're really not there to learn steps as much as just to participate in a movement time. And the first time I went, I felt incredibly awkward. But then she does this thing where she has people move around the gymnasium with their eyes closed. And it's wonderful. And she just gives very simple cues. And as soon as my eyes were closed, I freed up. And so, I don't know if this is leaning into the perfectionism side of things, but to close your eyes when you're being physical is really freeing. It's a beautiful thing.
Tracy
As long as you don't run into anything!
Sue
I think we should all go take a class.
Val
Is it also because other people had their eyes closed?
Sue
Yes. So, no judging. Nobody's looking. You can't see yourself and you can't see them. And so, you're not copying. You're not comparing. It's very, very free. So, I think that I can just attest that -Wow. That rings true in that kind of a setting. And it is very freeing. And I always leave feeling so, lifted.
Tracy
Well, being free to move our bodies and play in the sense that “dancing on the rings of Saturn” that I mentioned and just even just prep, coming into here, like air pods in and just really playful songs that are just so helpful in that journey. I said, I may stick a playlist in the show notes, just we need to have sometimes tools that help us to come to that, you know, playful space. Anyone else…
Catherine
I love, what you said about for some people, they may not have a lot of play memories, because I think for some people, if you look at Maslow's Needs Hierarchy, the need for safety was greater than the need to play or write, like things like that. And so, oftentimes actually healing involves like finding your inner child again. Like how do you actually connect to joy and wonder and the present moment?
And so, as we talk about obstacles, I couldn't actually say that I feel like I almost had my childhood chased out of me, if that makes sense, in that, you know, that verse that says “I've given up childish things” (1 Corinthians 13:11b) and it was like, you know, we don't need, I don't need dreams. I don't need, all of those pieces. And to come back to that realization that, we do actually need those things. We do need those things to be purposefully filled with wonder and delight and to see beauty and joy. And so that coming back to that, it's so cool because neuroscience even proves it to that, that new proteins are actually able to be built when we are in adventure and wonder. Right? So, it's like God knows that we need to be connected to joy in the present moment, and seeing beauty, and wonder, and delight like he made us for that, right? He loves so that would be a bit of an obstacle, maybe feeling like there was more busy, more important work than just being present, but then realizing, wow, like, if I'm not experiencing all the fullness of it, I'm not experiencing everything that God's created, right?
Tracy
Yeah, because play shapes the brain. There's so many directions within this topic. It's not a purposeless place. He [Dr Stuart Brown] said it's “apparently purposeless”.
Val
I think I'm quite playful as an adult. I love to be silly and make jokes and laugh, and I love to send GIFs like, I'd like to be the GIF queen! I love to walk outside with bare feet. Like Sue was saying, being in or near the water.
Just as I've gotten older, I actually really like to swim where I didn't like it before, but even being in a pool kind of, I feel like it brings me into like a childlike state.
So, I would say for me, though, I love this topic. Like it's my favorite. It's just because I would say busyness - again, I know that you're talking about that, but busyness of the mind, more than the schedule. You know, if my mind is busy with details or anxious thoughts or whatever, then there's no room for play. So back to the rest piece, like if I've a rested, relaxed, mind then I feel like my space is more open to playfulness.
I also just I love this topic and I think this one I will sit with the most of all four, just because you're sort of transforming my idea of God. I have not thought of God as playful, I have to admit. Maybe the rest of you have, I don't know, but it's definitely not top on my list for a characteristic I relate to in in my God. And so, I am really interested in exploring this idea more because I love the idea that my God and my Father is playful and fun and smiling on me. And you know, I've always known he was loving but fun and playful are very different. It's just a very cool idea and something I think that maybe a lot of our listeners might want to sit with.
Catherine
I think, too, that that focus on like, this is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. And then an acronym for G.L.A.D. is like, what are you Grateful for? What have you Learned? What are you Appreciative of? But also, how is he Delighting you? Like to be alive with the fact that our God really wants to delight us, that he created all of this for us to experience and sense and see and enjoy. So beautiful. And I think that's my “purposeful”, like we talked about in our scheduling, purposely “I'm going to make a snow angel”. I'm going to actually like say this is important work for me to do.
Tracy
And creation is an amazing place to see God at play. There's so many places, like when we think, if God is God and I say I believe he is, if God is God, he could have done anything in creation. We could live in a black and white world. We could live in a world without smells. We could live in a world without platypus, right? You know, like, what is the platypus? It's hard to look at creation, it's hard to look at, bison sliding across a frozen lake, trumpeting exultantly, ravens sliding down a hill, to not recognize pieces of God at play in the world. And we are, it's said that we are made in the image of God. There are many things that means, but what does that mean? And, I think that part of this, and this was kind of coming from something Val said, you know, not understanding it and exploring it [the idea of play] is the thing I'd add to Carla White's list is that we don't play because we don't know or value what play looks like for us.
One of my favorite thoughts, and this is where I want to lean into for the rest of the episode, is true play involves self-expression, and you are uniquely designed by a playful God to play in your very own way. So, we've talked about play. We've read a kind of heavy definition on play. We've talked about obstacles, but I think it's time to play.
So, listeners, we're going to talk play personalities. And each of the Puzzlers have been given a play personality quiz and descriptions which they haven't seen. These play personalities are drawn from the work of Dr Stuart Brown and his decades of collecting play histories. So, each of you have those there… and listeners, this quiz will be available in your show notes- the quiz itself, by design, was not designed to be taken seriously because, frankly, we take ourselves very seriously. So she, the developer of it, commented in one space that she deliberately made it playful, which didn't necessarily “make sense”, if you will.
And so, what we're going to do is that the Puzzlers have had this quiz. We're not going to tell your play personalities. There are eight play personalities that Dr Stuart Brown does. But as we read through these play personalities, each of the Puzzlers has something [the definition of the play personalities] [so] be listening about who you are, who the people around you are. Who are you? Who? What is your play personality? Because it's unique. Although I will say we're similar in this group, so there's lots of personalities, so think of someone else if there's someone that comes to mind. So just go ahead. Can someone begin to read their play personalities?
Sue
Do you want me to read all of these? Or one at the time?
Tracy
Sure, read them, go around around the circle, whatever you’d like.
Sue
The Competitor. The Competitor enjoys competitive games and sports with specific rules. Playing to win. The games may be solitary, like a video game or social like baseball, but they may be participated in either as a participant or a fan. Play comes in pursuit of a goal. Although not for everyone, this is often the form that receives validation as play, and the one most likely to receive validation from others.
Tracy
And you can feel free to comment a little bit on them if you want. Like this is what we tend to think of as play as adults, we’re going to play hockey.
Sue
Yeah, my kids are going to be involved in play it.
Val
For like adult, sports leagues. I was thinking, oh, like, they have a really good outlet if, if you want to play, you can join a sports team because that's where you can express yourself within the confines of like, social acceptance play.
Catherine
I think it's kind of ironic that I have this one right, this might be what do I do? The Explorer. The Explorer plays through learning and exploring the world around. Exploring can be physical, literally going a new place or traipsing through the forest on unexpected pathways. It can be emotional, exploring feelings or deepening an understanding of the familiar and …
Sue
That's funny.
Catherine
… exploring. It may also be mental, like researching a new subject and learning from points of view, from reading or conversations with others.
Tracy
Hmm, I wonder if there's any spoiler for who the Puzzlers might be?!
Val
The Collector. The collectors are appreciators. For them, play involves hunting for, acquiring, and building a collection of objects or experiences. They may collect wine or works of art, interesting rocks, or travel the world collecting the experience of a solar eclipse. They may enjoy their play as a solitary activity or with intense social connection with others of shared interest.
Sue
That's cool.
Val
Is that you Tracy? Because you mentioned collecting?
Tracy
I think what's interesting is that the we’ll have a primary, but I think that you'll see pieces of yourself.
Catharine
Yeah. Yes.
Tracy
So, think about that as you're listening. It's probably no spoiler that Catherine’s primary one was Explorer because you saw so many times in your childhood description.
But listen for other pieces of yourself because this is about giving handles, because we don't know what play is or we think play should be A, B or C.
Catherine
Yeah, but collecting books this way, I've got a few.
Sue
I have the Kinesthetic. The Kinesthetic plays through body movement. They may enjoy sports, but it isn't as much about competition as just the fun of moving in their body. (Hello Sky!) They often need to move in order to think. They may enjoy dance, rock climbing, circus arts, or anything that celebrates the body's presence and movement in the world.
Val
I don't know if that I answered that, but that does sound like me.
Tracy
That's why I said’ I was listening to the answers coming in, knowing that the quiz was just like a six question quiz.
So even for listeners, when you pull up the quiz, scroll down her page, find other places with Stuart Brown’s [play personalities]. These are written out, available for you because we explore it more by seeing some of these other attributes. We're never just one typecast thing. Go ahead, Catherine.
Catherine
And another ironic one, the Storyteller. The Storyteller finds imagination key to play. A novelist, a playwright, a screenwriter, but also those who love to read novels, watch movies and experience through the thoughts and emotions of people in a story. Performers are storytellers. Storytellers are also those who craft narratives from everyday life to share with others.
Tracy
And that one felt important to me within that, because we can just live the “ordinary life”. For a friend who, she came through a storyteller, she would never consider herself “writer/novelist.” But, oh!” she said, “but I love to have, I love to hear people's life stories. I love to share something within that.”
Sue
It's funny because you were, commenting earlier about making up stories about the people around you, you know, people watching. I spent a summer while my daughter was in classes, I would go to the park, and I would watch people and I started writing their stories. I started making up stories about the people that I was watching. I found that so fun. But I would never think of that as play. Isn’t that interesting?! So that was my point in bringing that up. I never thought of it as play. So, I, I feel very seen right now.
Tracy
And one of the questions on the quiz that we didn't come to, it was interesting, I don't know if you remember it, but twice they asked, one of the options was making up stories about people on the street, you know, sitting in airports, people watching and wondering – play. Or one of them I enjoyed, you show up at a park and you make up a story about the ducks!
Val
Well, even the first one that you read, exploring, I love that, but I don't often think of that as play either. Even exploring information. You know, maybe if I approached it with a more playful approach, I would realize I'm actually playing right now.
I have the Director. The Director enjoys planning and executing scenes and events. They are born organizers. At their best they are the party givers, the dynamics center of their social world. They may be coaching Little League, organizing a food drive, or hosting a party.
Catherine
Hmm. Who's hosting the Puzzlers?
Sue
Oh, look, I have the Joker, Catherine!
Puzzlers (laughter!)
“Night time, Catherine. Playful Catherine”
Sue
The Joker. The Joker is the classic class clown. This play style often shows up in extroverts who love to entertain and make others laugh. This is an inherently fun, silly type of play, including practical jokes. Nonsense play is the very first type of play we engage in, baby talk, blowing raspberries on a baby's stomach, etc.
Tracy
Isn't that neat? We even initiate, even sensory in places in those places with children.
Catherine
The Artist or Creator. The Artist or Creator finds play and joy in making things. They may be a more traditional artist, painting, sculpting, drawing, or they may be landscape contractors or model railroad builders or home decorators - I just added that! That’s for you, Sue! - They may enjoy knitting, home decorating, or taking apart a pump and putting it back together. That's interesting! Engineering and my husband actually. They also delight in imagining new ideas and bringing them to life. Very cool.
Val
This also sounds like Nicole!
Tracy
So, Puzzlers, what would you say, having heard those, would be your primary? Which one are you drawn to within that?
I can recap them, so we have - the Joker, the classic class clown; the Kinesthetic playing through body movement; the Explorer who plays through learning and exploring the world; the Competitor who enjoys competitive games and those kind of places; the Director who enjoys planning and executing scenes; the Collector who collects, the appreciators; the Artist/Creator; and the Storyteller.
Val
Mine would be….I know some that I do not gravitate towards, but the Kinetic one for me, also the Storyteller and the Explorer. Those would be probably the three that I would feel.
Tracy
What is not?
Val
A Collector. That's not really me. Which was another… Oh, I don't really like to plan things.
Sue
And the Competitor.
Val
No, I'm not that competitive either, but that's like my husband and my daughter. They love it.
Tracy
So, ladies, Catherine or Sue?
Catherine
Definitely the explorer. Like 100%. Even before that, this is like, you know, Nancy Drew love her. Right? Like research, like I told you, like, exciting play was like I read the encyclopedias. Sorry, listeners, some of you might not even know what that is, but… they were actually books that you had to read to find out information. But yeah, so for sure, the Explorer/Adventure, Creator and, Storyteller.
Sue
So, I knew I liked you for a reason, so we could play together. Yeah, those would be my three, maybe in a slightly different order. I would put the Creative first, then the Storyteller. But Explorer, like, I love travel. It's really tough for me to actually divvy them up, but travel and bringing something home from wherever I go, just a little piece of the world that is high on my list of that kind of adventure, and hiking like I love.
Tracy
And that's the thing to that's collecting, too. That's the collecting of memories.
Sue
And so that’s so it's so interesting, because The Collector didn't resonate with me, but I do. Yes, I do see that. I absolutely collect memories and experience.
Val
I think you really do things. That's a way that I do think you play.
Sue
Yeah, so for sure. Thank you.
Catherine
Sue, you can take me on adventures ‘cause I'm directionally challenged. So, one of the questions was like, you have a friend coming and what would you do with them? And I the first one was ‘take them somewhere new you've never been’, and I'm like, “Umm, we’d get lost. I can't pick that one!” So, I picked show them your collection of new things that you, got at some a thrift store or something like that.
Tracy
And one of the things that I love about the play personalities, and I encourage you guys to go back to, is that it lets us see play outside of the boxes. We have boxes. We start to see, oh, I could collect. I mean, I love to collect things that are meaningful, but I love to collect experiences. I love to go to yard sales. Like I love the treasure hunt of that. It's not about I'm not going to be, baseball cards or that same kind of thing, but it's the treasure hunt and then bringing something home. And so, quotes are something of a collection place too.
So, it's probably not a guess, but most of us here, in terms of the quiz, came up with Explorer. Catherine actually came up with Storyteller. Well, I think there's overlapping …
Catherine
That’s because I can't get places, because I'm directly challenged! I love to explore, but I get lost. Oh, oh, I've stories on that one!
Tracy
So just shift towards the end, because our lovely Nicole has given me a sign that we're wrapping up with this episode, and play – and play needs some structure as well! - play for me includes story, imagination, and books, among other things. So, to wrap up and to return to our picture of a playful God, I'm going to leave you with an excerpt from CS Lewis's The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
Before I do that, I just want to offer a challenge for the listener, and for each of us, find the Play Personality quiz. But more specifically, find the eight Play Personalities, and just consider that there may actually be play happening in your life that you are not naming it as that, and honour that. One woman shared that when she is in extreme stress, what she does is go and start researching stuff. And she came to recognize that was play because it opened something up in her.
But back to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. As a quick synopsis, if you don't know the story, it tells of four children who got whisked away from our world to the land of Narnia through a magic wardrobe. While there, they encountered talking animals and other creatures living in a never-ending winter under the control of the White Witch.
The story is allegorical, and the great Lion, Aslan, the son of the Emperor Over the Sea, comes and dies a sacrificial death in the place of a traitor, the White Witch has her Deep Magic, and she kills Aslan on the Stone Table, but what she doesn't know is that there is a Deeper Magic that goes before time. With a great cracking,
as a sun rises the next morning, the Stone Table breaks into two. Aslan is alive!
“Aren't you dead, then, dear Aslan?” said Lucy.
“Not now,” said Aslan. “Oh, children,” said the Lion, “I feel my strength coming back to me. Oh, children, catch me if you can!”
He stood for a second, his eyes very bright, his limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail. He made a leap high over their heads and landed on the other side of the Table. Laughing, although she didn't know why, Lucy scrambled over it to reach him. Aslan leaped again and mad chase began. Round and round the hilltop he led them, now hopelessly out of reach, now letting them [almost] catch his tail. Now diving between them, now tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws and catching them again. And now stopping unexpectedly, so that all three of them rolled over together in a happy, laughing heap of fur and arms and legs.
It was such a romp as no one has ever had except in Narnia, and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten, Lucy never could make up her mind. And the funny thing was that, when all three finally lay together panting in the sun, the girls no longer felt in the least tired or hungry or thirsty.”
So, how, my friends, do you see your God?
So that is the end of our episode on play. And consider the question, am I a playful person? And why is it hard to live playfully?
So, as we wrap up, I'm going to hand the baton over … to Nicole, who's going to have an opportunity to … play in the moment as we head into one more episode, who is …not actually … we will rewind because we've talked about mistakes!
Nicole is not ‘miked’, so we will rewind. We will be revisiting, and kind of coming to one more episode where we just get to consider what our season has been like and some other thoughts there. So … a mistake isn't sins, ladies and gentlemen, a mistake is not a sin. Her poor face … Nicole. So, thank you everyone for this episode of The Puzzlers.
Nicole
So, in season two, we actually have added a special bonus episode where we will dive into our past conversations, highlighting the moments that resonated with us and the lessons we have learned along the way. So, we invite you to join us as we explore our fresh perspectives on the themes around permission to share, to rest, to fail, and to play. See you soon.
