A-Playful-Path_DeKoven-web

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In the first version, there’s this guy with the What. The rules stipulate that only the What guy really knows what’s What. You have to keep on referring back to him. And if that’s not confusing enough, the What guy’s talking about two completely different Whats. And if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, you have too much information to process, you don’t know which way to go, which person to say What to. This is very familiar. Familiar to anyone in the clergy, or the pews, the office or the classroom. Despite the efforts of the establishment, the teaching gets separated from the teacher, the vision gets separated, the spirit gets separated, the meaning separated, and all that is left is confusion. Because we’re just playing, the confusion is what makes it so much fun. When we’re not playing, it’s not so much. In the second, everyone has a What, everyone’s trying to tell the next guy what to call the What, except that What was given to them by someone else who was trying, at the same time she was telling you about the What she was giving you, to figure out what the What she was getting from the other person was supposed to be called. I think they call this crowdsourcing. 141
The fun also rises Fun is our most important product. Well, maybe not our most important. But the pursuit of fun, and the invention of new ways to have it, has been something we’ve done on a personal, family, tribal and national level throughout our history (and pre-history, probably, too). Since Greece and Rome, sports have reflected the nations that nurture them. Wrestling, track and field, baseball, football, rugby, tennis, golf, competitive sailing and the like model societal norms, holding the promise of great wealth, honors, and dominance for the fortunate few. Despite the ubiquity of basketball courts, football and baseball fields, even in the poorest neighborhoods, and the promise that even the poorest can become superstars, the truth is what it has been for practically ever – spectators vastly outnumber players. The parallels between sports, government, military and banking are too many to disassociate one from the other. All, despite claims of inclusivity, are played and officiated by an elite minority. Spectators and citizens have, for the most part, only indirect influence on outcomes, and even less of the benefits. In the early 70s, I had the privilege to be part of a “movement” called “New Games.” It was started by a few people who were, at the time, the seeds of what became, for at least two decades, a new culture (notably, Stewart Brand, editor of The Whole Earth Catalog and George Leonard, author of The Ultimate Athlete) – one that manifested itself through public celebrations of community. We played games like the Lap Game, where thousands of people stood in a giant circle, turned 90-degrees, and sat on each other’s laps, and People Pass where people lovingly carried each other from one end of the line to the other. Or Knots, where people made a knot out of each other’s joined hands, and tried to figure out how to untie themselves. The New Games Tournaments were playful, creative and inclusive, where the only rules were “play fair, play hard, nobody hurt.” And, as such, they were also profoundly political. They manifested an alternative that was diametrically opposed to the dominant culture. There were no spectators, only players. There were many games, played simultaneously, that anybody could join or quit, and no one game or player was any more important than any other. There was music and art and invitations to play at any level for any age with any ability. The New Games movement eventually spread across the globe. It changed, adapted, and its influence can still be found in youth programs throughout the world. For these children, New Games is a collection of fun activities that make them feel better about themselves and each other. 142
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A Playful Path Bernard Louis DeKove
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Contents Prelude 13 A Playful Path
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Play 147 The Sense of Play 149 Life
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Your inner Tire Swing 268 Your Inne
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how cold and wet it would be, you t
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The final section (Fun) generalizes
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A playful path “A playful path is
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caught, even, and we pause just as
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No guardrails hath the path There's
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Life and death on your playful path
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that it, too, had been repurposed
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Playfulness Playfulness isn’t rea
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Wonder The entrance to your playful
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But the payoff, the payoff! Taking
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Play playfully Playfulness opens yo
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world yoga with laughter and games
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Playing together When it comes to p
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Playfulness and humor Our sense of
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Practicing Playfulness “The Path
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Applauding leaves Here’s a story
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Toilet Paper Tug of War In my earli
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Dayeinu, the game There are some pa
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Playing with rejection Even rejecti
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The Out-Blessing game Trying to out
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Being Blessed When my wonderful fri
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Human Spring Played in pairs. Stand
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Follow the Follower Turn on some ge
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Food Theatre 1) Prepare at least fi
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P.S. You can’t make your self mor
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A Theory of Games “Fun is better
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it was all about acting like you wa
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the pursued as well as the pursuer.
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The way of games The more I played
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Games as a way of understanding Luc
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The wisdom of games Ever since I di
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Hide and Seek The hider acts as if
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to find the belt became the master
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Braving the game It takes bravery t
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and laughter as a spiritual experie
Page 91 and 92: very much bigger, so very much more
Page 93 and 94: Cooperation and competition So, let
Page 95 and 96: Loving competition One of the games
Page 97 and 98: Games are for Fun As I might have h
Page 99 and 100: The Fun-Focused game When we talk a
Page 101 and 102: admiration, of shared fun. When chi
Page 103 and 104: The Slanty Line principle There’s
Page 105 and 106: The friendly game When I think of a
Page 107 and 108: The evolving game Some games evolve
Page 109 and 110: Or, if you have a multilingual grou
Page 111 and 112: a circle) and assumes the last numb
Page 113 and 114: Of games and players One thing you
Page 115 and 116: 114 Cooperative games There are bas
Page 117 and 118: We’ve made it a rule that you’r
Page 119 and 120: Of course, there are still more var
Page 121 and 122: On the other hand, sometimes it’s
Page 123 and 124: All games are cooperative Each game
Page 125 and 126: On being IT Take tag, for example.
Page 127 and 128: Funny Games “...for the truth wil
Page 129 and 130: Hug Tag Somebody’s IT. Maybe even
Page 131 and 132: Roshambo Then there’s Roshambo, f
Page 133 and 134: Rock-Scissors-Paper Tag Which bring
Page 135 and 136: Something That Beats Something Else
Page 137 and 138: And when those fail, grab as many t
Page 139 and 140: When people bump into each other, t
Page 141: eally: a Fred, a Pizza, a Furblik).
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Page 149 and 150: enefit from following such a path -
Page 151 and 152: Life is play We know that play is f
Page 153 and 154: Master players Many people have com
Page 155 and 156: Play and getting paid to play On ge
Page 157 and 158: Playing like a grownup You know peo
Page 159 and 160: Innocent intimacy I’m especially
Page 161 and 162: • the art and science of fun •
Page 163 and 164: The same is true of the human herd.
Page 165 and 166: Play and death Dying isn’t fun. B
Page 167 and 168: well, joy and comfort in each other
Page 169 and 170: ers’ and each other’s. Rules an
Page 171 and 172: Coliberation When we play or work o
Page 173 and 174: The shared Whee What am I doing whe
Page 175 and 176: hang-gliding, bungee-jumping, rock-
Page 177 and 178: Bill taught me this. Was this. A fl
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Page 181 and 182: Finding Fun Fun is wherever you are
Page 183 and 184: knowing when to start a new game so
Page 185 and 186: The laws of fun Let’s divide ever
Page 187 and 188: Fun, happiness, joy, bliss When you
Page 189 and 190: Becoming Gifted On my way to work I
Page 191 and 192: The Kinds of fun “All for fun, an
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The kind of fun that makes you laug
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As fun as fun can be As fun as fun
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Funny fun Probably one of my favori
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Naughty fun When we’ve talked abo
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Nachas and Mechaiyeh xxx In my atte
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Fantastic Fun It’s fun to fantasi
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Beauty There’s something fun abou
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Cruel fun I’m not sure if it’s
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Good fun Good fun is a healing kind
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Minor fun Let's pretend that there
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Dizzy fun I started thinking about
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Fun with your self Some games we pl
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Fun with a bunch of others Then, th
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Ziggy Zah! Repeat: Kehaygeza Kehayg
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The Fun of Fun “Don’t let the h
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Whee! When you find your self in th
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The sense of fun People talk about
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Which makes you think of course abo
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The spirit of fun Fun is a spiritua
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it right, you’re having as much f
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Not having fun, or having not-fun W
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ones. In fact, bringing the minor t
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Seven ways to make almost anything
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The reminding Which brings me to th
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Between us Paying attention to each
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The School o’ Fun Let’s start w
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Fun work I’m not convinced that e
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Of fun and games The world that we
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If I were the One and the One were
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The Oaqui explain(s) fun According
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The Not-Yet fun Fun is the key. But
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Two Players - a Oaqui tale I asked
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The Therapeutics of Primal Glee, ac
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Appendix “Play is how the mind mi
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My oral coronation There I was, lyi
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The Inner Inner City Amuse my self,
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Building your inner playground As w
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Your Inner Swingset Congratulations
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Your Inner Tire Swing Imagine your
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Control Button two: Changing locati
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Your Inner Sandbox Before we go any
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Preparing your Inner playground for
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Enter Silly and Serious At last, he
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you from all to nothing, from infin
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Silly and Serious get scared Silly
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Serious And Silly meet Naughty and
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Silly plays grownup One of the big
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that was as good at being silly as
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Your Inner Thespian So there you ar
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er end. Wrong would simply keep on
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Endnotes i Almost everything you ne
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xxvi Children’s Games in Street a
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supposed to be doing, with the fun
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ing sessions, organize ideas and de
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