The Power of Play

It is no secret in Early Childhood Education that children learn through sensorimotor exploration. They learn through blocks and imaginative play and coloring and all those fun preschool activities. That's how they learn about gravity and interpersonal skills and everything they'll need to become functioning adults.

And then sometime over the next twenty years our self-esteem plummets and we forget how to imagine. Or how to let ourselves go and simply play. Even those things which adults call "play" (like golf or exercise) can often turn into work; and sometimes can even be more stressful than work.

That's why I love the urban playground movement. Call me a liberal. Call me a neo-hippie. Call me whatever you want. But anything that gets a group of adults together for a 7 minute game of duck duck goose in a San Francisco park is alright in my book. And it's not just San Francisco. These so-called "flash mobs" have been occurring since the late nineties, but lately they've been turning more and more toward play, rather than pointless havoc. A pillow fight in Central Park. A mass coordinated dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller". It all sounds like a bunch of fun.

So; what does any of this have to do with religion? Well, not so much on the surface. Underneath though, it seems to make a solid statement about society. Or at least, our discontent with the state or direction of society. People are realizing that they are not the only ones tired of consumerism; of the endless work week; of living life for nothing; can I go so far as to say that people are even getting tired of nihilism?

It seems to me, at least, that if people are realizing that something is lacking in life, it gives more room for God to move. Once people understand that life needs meaning (no, life demands meaning) they may be more receptive to the redemptive message of Christ. And anything that opens up the way for Christ (and can incorporate childish games) is more than okay to me.