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Day 24
Play!
When you think fondly about your boyhood days, you probably think about
the time you spent playing. While we now associate playing with toys, your
best memories probably don’t involve plastic crap at all. You likely think
about catching fireflies, building dirt ramps for your bike, playing capture
the flag, having dirt clod fights, playing wall ball, and hunting for sparrows
with your BB gun.
As we got older, those endless summer nights of play came to an end as
we were expected to take on more responsibility and act more “grown up.”
We accepted new rules about how to behave and what to prioritize. We
stopped playing and started working.
Here at the Art of Manliness we’re about the business of helping men
man up and quit being perpetual boys. But becoming an adult man shouldn’t
mean that you completely extinguish your boyish spirit and vitality. Indeed,
an irrepressible boyishness is essential to a life of fun, humor, and happiness.
While becoming a man means putting away some childish things,
playtime shouldn’t be one of them.
The Importance of Play
Most grown-ups view play as a kind of dress-rehearsal for adulthood, believing
that once we become adults, the need for play evaporates. But little of
children’s play relates to actual adult experiences; most of us don’t grow up
to become Spiderman or a swashbuckling pirate. Children play simply for
play’s sake, for the pleasure they get from it. And it turns out that adults
need to play for the very same reason. We shouldn’t grow out of play; even
our biology rejects the idea.