Yes, I know, it is a show, lots is staged and they get paid for it. But, they seemed to genuinely enjoy themselves and let loose. If it had only been this incident I would not have really started pondering over it and said nothing more than 'They got it right, they are doing what they love doing and getting paid for it'. In the spirit of 2013 thought I picked up a book buried in my draw and flicked over the index. I only read one chapter: The playful Universe. And that was enough, enough to get me mind spinning. In truth with the author Charles Eisenstein this book is actually available for free on the net http://www.panenthea.com/downloads/aoh_text.pdf !!!
Coming back to my personal light bulb moment about fooling around and being playful. Play, in our society is perceived to be situated in the domain of childhood and permitted only in small doses to counterbalance the real learning business. Toys these days need to aid the development of cognitive skills because playing just for the fun of it is not viewed as being 'productive'. For adults it is even worse and we don't get to play much at all. Yet Eisenstein raises some very interesting points regarding the importance of play that were spot on. On page 121 he lets us know why play is so valuable:
Play is not enslaved to a preset end, but allows the end to emerge spontaneously through the process
itself. Play does not require willpower to stay focused and overcome our natural desires; it is natural desire manifest. When we play, we are willing to try things without guarantee of their eventual usefulness or value; yet paradoxically, it is precisely when we let go of such motivations that we produce the things of greatest use.
What he reminded me off was that the game called 'Game of Life' was quiet a good resemblance of the game we are playing now. It is called 'Individualism' where only a few of us are able, like the judges I watched on the show 'Got to Dance', to have fun with what they are doing. The rest of us need to work, keep the economy going etc... and that is why we envy the stars - they got enough money to allow them to 'play' in their spare time. The rest of us are waiting for the dice to roll and see what 'life' has got in store for us. It is an odd game we are playing and we forgot that we are playing it!
This lesson comes to me at a time where I am contemplating whether to do my teacher training (as a German & French teacher who would have thought) or to build up my portfolio as a self-employed ABA tutor. Or should I just chuck it all in and keep doodling, developing my children's books? The latter is the most desirable option. I am still stuck in a 3D world with my 3D thought, that is why I shall end this entry with much wiser words by Eisenstein and his chapter on the playful Universe:
Our present loss of all the characteristics of play—spontaneity, fearlessness, spirit of exploration, creativity, willingness to test limits, non-attachment to results—is itself part of a larger game of individuation. In the currentage, as the dance of separation becomes increasingly intolerable, as crises mount throughout the world, we are beginning to realise that the time has come to stop playing this game and begin another one. The game of “let’s pretend we are discrete, isolated beings in an objective universe” with all that it entails has served its purpose. But now it is time to play a new one.
Your playful Uran Yogi (middle)
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