Article: Play

One evening towards the end of summer I found myself with a group of friends deep water soloing (DWS). DWS is a pretty pointless activity even as far as rock climbing goes. Rock climbing is usually fairly pointless (Why not walk up round the side of the steep rocky bit?) but DWS is even more so. DWS involves really going out of your way to make life tricky. It’s often necessary to abseil, boat or swim to the start of a DWS. The climb is then ascended unaided and unprotected – the idea is, if you fall off you land in the water. It’s a very pure form of climbing but, practically speaking, even if you’re successful you usually achieve nothing more than ending up where you started from. The route we were on was a DWS traverse and so pointless even amongst DWS climbs - it didn’t even involve any gain in height. And it was raining so the rock was slippery. And it was getting dark. And we knew that the easiest way back to our now damp change of clothes involved a cold swim. A voice penetrated the falling rain and darkness,

“Are you OK?” It was a kindly woman, out taking her dog and a bag of warm faeces for a walk. It was a sensible question. What we were doing was daft, it achieved nothing and it brought our sanity into question.

But it was also the most fun I’d had for weeks. It put a smile on my face that lasted for several days, almost outlasting the smell from my damp, drying gear. My imagination, energy, awareness of the world and sense of humour were renewed. I enjoyed recreation.

I’m naturally an achiever – I like to know that whenever I invest time, energy, creativity, money… I am accomplishing something. If I can accomplish two or more things at once then that’s even more satisfying. Perhaps doing something pointless helps to keep this strength in balance.

Play, preferably whole person real world play (as opposed to the highly limited sensory experiences offered by computers) is very good for us and not just as an escape. Psychology reckons that there are many reasons why pointless, fun activity - play - is a good thing for adults.

• Play breaks the routine. Too much routine can reduce our intelligence.
• Play enables us to maintain or renew the inter-connections between the nerve cells in our central nervous system. This services our flexibility and creativity.
• Apparently play can be sexy. It reassures our mate (in the zoological sense) or potential mate that we can cope with stress; that we don’t kill and eat everything that unsettles us.
• Play is human. No other species is as good at it as we are. To play is to enjoy being who we are and to reassure other humans that we are the same species as them.
• Play separates us from our usual tools, machines, props and supports and frees us to respond to and overcome challenges in new and confidence building ways.
• Play allows us the enjoyment of overcoming difficulties without the fear of the consequences of failing to overcome them – a fear which accompanies and limits us through many of our daily challenges.
• Play heightens our senses. When we are under stress we filter out unnecessary stimulation. When engaged in relaxing play these filters are off and our sensitivity to our environment is heightened.

Let’s make sure that our time devoted to facilitating our recreation isn’t spoiled by our focus on achievement. Let’s ensure that our recreation doesn’t become another labour.

Let’s be silly, daft, child-like and recreated. Let’s play.