PLAY
What are we doing when we play? The dictionary definition is ‘engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose‘. That is the superficial view of play. We are having fun certainly, but there is a deeply serious motive behind it. We are doing nothing less than preparing ourselves for the things that are going to happen to all of us. To put this in modern terms, we are rehearsing life skills. This is true of adults, children – even dogs. This means that play is basic practice for what will happen in the real world, whether it is for humans or in animals. This is what we are doing when we play chess, toy soldiers, football, even noughts and crosses. Conflict is often a large part of play as it is in life – the two teams in a sports match are an example of this, but not all play is conflict; building with Lego bricks, playing with dolls, even a dog returning a ball that you have thrown are cooperative endeavours in play, not involving conflict. It is obvious why children play so much – they have a lot to learn and quickly – but play continues throughout life, though it is less important in the elderly. You will not find much playfulness in an old folks home.
Rugby match; Norwich School against Gresham’s. (6th November 1999)
It is revealing to consider the different uses of the word ‘play’. An important one is the playing of music. Is music a preparation for life? In a much more subtle way than playing games it is. Playing in this respect is much more about cooperation than conflict, though conflict has its place. The playing of a military band helps to reinforce the unity of a regiment before going into battle. It is an important part of preparing for conflict – a real life and death scenario. Playing a hymn tune provides a church congregation with a single sense purpose. The National Anthem produces a unity among the attendees at an event. In these cases playing music is mostly looking forward, but in playing a folk song it is looking back to things that happened long ago. You could regard the playing of a piece of music as erecting a structure in sound that imitates the structure of the world around us. In playing your part in an orchestra you are participating in a joint venture that produces a sense of achievement; it is similar to the feeling of the winning team in a Cup Final.
Yet another sense the word ‘play’ concerns drama. A play is a fictional version of life that prepares you emotionally for the good and the bad, the comedy and the tragedy. That is why we are entertained by plays; they impose order on the welter of experiences that rain down on us every day, and allow us to draw lessons from apparently random events. The same thing is happening when the rules of a cricket match let us create order out of chaos; it has a wicket, overs, an umpire. It is not just wildly hitting out at ball with a bat. A play is even more structured than a sports match but both have a beginning and an end; what happens in the middle is played out before our eyes. This can be a deeply moving experience but ultimately it is not real life; ‘the play’s the thing’*. We leave the stadium or the theatre and go home.
These different uses of the word play are not recognized as having any connection by most people. I hope that I have demonstrated the underlying relationship of these kinds of play and its complete contrast with actuality. I think there is the germ of a much longer and deeper piece of writing in this short blog on play, but this will have to do for now.
*This quotation comes from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.
JOSEPH MASON
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