| Is there a natural value to playing that we as | | | | As soon as I was through eating, I began playing, |
| adults have somehow managed to forget? Does | | | | and continued to do so until the patients arrived; |
| it serve some higher function, other than just | | | | and if I was finished with my work early enough |
| learning? | | | | in the evening, I went back to building. In the |
| Kids seem to figure out play all by themselves. All | | | | course of this activity my thoughts clarified, and I |
| over the world, young kids will invent games and | | | | was able to grasp the fantasies whose presence |
| stuff, playing with whatever they happen to have | | | | in myself I dimly felt. |
| handy and go at it for hours on end. In the | | | | Naturally, I thought about the significance of what |
| process, they have a lot of fun and happiness, | | | | I was doing, and asked myself, "Now, really, what |
| regardless of how crappy the rest of their lives | | | | are you about? You are building a small town, and |
| are. | | | | doing it as if it were a rite!" I had no answer to |
| But as adults, we seem to lose that childish spirit | | | | my question, only the inner certainty that I was |
| and pretty much stop playing games the way we | | | | on the way to discovering my own myth. For the |
| used to when we were kids. If we do play | | | | building game was only a beginning. It released a |
| something, it's often some form of sport, or | | | | stream of fantasies which I later carefully wrote |
| some other board game that often limits the | | | | down. |
| imagination by having a defined set of rules that | | | | This sort of thing has been consistent with me, |
| has to be followed. More and more these days, | | | | and at any time in my later life when I came up |
| people are turning to things like video games | | | | against a blank wall I painted a picture or hewed |
| which, while they are fun to play, don't force us | | | | stone. Each such experience proved to be a rite |
| to use our imaginations at all. | | | | d'entrée for the ideas and works that |
| Kids don't seem to need to worry about that sort | | | | followed hard upon it. |
| of thing. They're happy to run around, playing | | | | I think what Jung was saying is that the value of |
| soldiers or cowboys and indians or whatever | | | | play is that it seems to unleash something within |
| happens to take their fancy at the time. If they | | | | our own minds that helps us in our day-to-day |
| have toy cars, they'll build elaborate roads and | | | | existence. It may be that it just fires up our own |
| jusy drive the cars around for ages. | | | | creativity and helps us be more open to different |
| What purpose do these sorts of childish games | | | | ways of thinking about things. As adults, we stop |
| serve? I think it's got something to do with | | | | doing such things and find our minds closed to |
| developing and using our imaginations. Kids find | | | | new ideas and our creativities hampered by rigid |
| that creativity comes naturally to them. They'll | | | | thinking and habits, which is usually to our |
| build stuff out of whatever happens to be around, | | | | detriment. |
| or they'll invent elaborate stories for their games | | | | So maybe we should all take some time and do |
| and everything that goes along with that. | | | | what Jung did: get out and start having fun the |
| Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist, talks | | | | way we did when we were kids. Throw away |
| about his own experiences with play in his | | | | the rules and start inventing stuff again, simply for |
| autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections. He | | | | the sheer joy of it. If nothing else, it might help |
| writes: | | | | you relax. |