Let’s play!

I made an amazing discovery, thanks to Stuart Brown. The link will take you to his informative TED Talk.

The discovery is how my life is limited by my lack of experience playing. I began to take life seriously when I was a very young boy. His talk is a wake up call for me, and potentially for millions of other people.

We are discouraged from playing at work and at school. We are told to have a vicarious experience from watching sports teams in competition. One of the problems with this strategy is that those teams are not playing. They are deeply committed to winning, and without winning they are completely deprived of fun.

We have essentially forgotten how to play, and we have categorized play as a waste of time. Stuart Brown explains the enormous cost in quality of life when we minimize play.

Yesterday I photographed a couple who will soon celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. They asked me if I would photograph them nude. Today they will receive 87 photos of them being playful, affectionate, and tender. They were joyful during the shoot. It was a lovely reminder to me about play.

It occurred to me while watching the TED Talk that most business organizations are impervious to good advice such as using play to leverage productivity. This means that it would be very easy for progressive management to distinguish an organization by heeding what Dr. Brown has to say. An organization could easily leave its competition in the dust, but this doesn’t happen because all the managers have pledged themselves to the same tired thinking and values.

I offer these photos of people playing. Enjoy!

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