My latest bumper sticker reads: “Radical Left Wing Lunatics Unite!” Making fun of autocrats helps lessen my dismay and disgust, for a moment or two. Q: “Why did the US bobsled team put pictures of Trump on their helmets? “A: “Because no else can make US go downhill faster.”
If you were starving to death or very very hungry, would you stop and play with a happy looking chicken or turnip, or would you attack it and eat it? A sled dog racer named Brian LaDoone witnessed a very thin, hungry-looking polar bear play with one of his friskiest dogs. The dog saw the bear approach, wagged their tail, did a bowing, downward dog motion and the two began a long wrestling match. The ice had not formed on the sea and the poor bear had no food but it chose to play rather than eat. The bear returned to their camp for seven days in a row and they continued playing until both were tired out. In the book “Play” by Dr. Stewart Brown, there is a photo of the bear cuddling and hugging the dog. When the ice froze and the hunting was viable, the bear went their own way.
In mammals, unstructured play helps us learn how to depend on our wits, our imaginations and our bodies, to thrive. How so? “Deep play” a term coined by Margaret Guenther, Episocplat priest, releases dopamine, regulates the vagus nerve, teaches us creativity, non-local awareness and builds emotional intelligence. Despite the fact that play is often seen by adults as frivolous, and despite the stressors of modern life, playing every day, in some way or other, is an antidote to despair and fear. Play is essentially an attitude. If I notice resentment arising because the autocrats continue to destroy the planet or when the dishes need washing yet again, I recall Marshall Rosenberg’s advice: “if it isn’t play, don’t do it.” I can always pause to feel delight, which frees me up to reframe aversion as a choice: “whoo hoo I get to be alive right now.”
“Play, by it’s very nature is a little anarchic….it’s about stepping outside of normal life and breaking normal patterns. Play allows us to embrace and even sculpt the contours of our fates with an ironic humour and a sense of sharing in our common humanity.” a quote from Stewart Brown, “Play, How It Shapes Our Brains, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul.” Ready for some more silliness?
Q: “What is the difference between Elon Musk and God?” A.”God does not think he is Elon Musk.”
Q: “What is the difference between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg?” A: “One is a human trying to conquer Mars and the other is an alien trying to conquer Earth.”
