Homo Ludens

The title of this piece is taken from Johan Huizinga's 1938 book Homo Ludens. The book is still very much worth reading. I'll let the reader figure out the Latin.

The imagination we displayed in my youth was pretty impressive. It stays with me today. When very young we had Legos, but they didn't come in specific kits. We just got a lot of bricks and built what we felt like. We did have toy cars and toy soldiers. We used them to populate little worlds in our bedroom (in which at other times our bunk bed was a stagecoach, or a spaceship, or a bus) Outside, we kicked a ball around, or used sticks as guns or swords. Our forts were bushes or garden walls. I read a lot too: science, history, and lots of story books. I lived in distant places and times, and they were real Right There in my mind. As we got a little older we ranged more widely. We used our bikes to go to the park. It had more space for games. We could play ball on the fields, or disappear among the trees and brush. A couple of miles away was an old WWII era base. The concrete foundations, some rusting huts, and best of all a couple of actual pillboxes made for the perfect play area. Yes, we got to play without adult supervision. People were less afraid back then. There was no 24 hour news cycle to fill and attract viewers, and no fear-mongering web sites. Also there was no pressure to be a helicopter parent. I read even more books as I approached adolescence. I have fond memories of weekend afternoons spent with my father in one armchair reading a science fiction book, and me in another chair reading another science fiction book. We watched Dr. Who and Star Trek together too. I spent many more hours alone reading other books, especially history or science. I still spent endless hours with my imagination allowing me to dwell in these other places and times. Even my teenage years were not devoid of imagination. I continued to read avidly, still mostly sci fi or history. However, Lego and toy cars had evolved into plastic models, running around with stick-swords had evolved into D&D, kicking a ball around the field had evolved into organized soccer (we were in the US by then), riding bikes to the park had evolved into driving out into the country. I also discovered girls, and my world turned upside down for a few years. Today, hormones back under control, I think the unlimited horizon of the liberated imagination is still with me. It now helps me with the doing rather than the playing. The playing, after all, was preparation for the doing. Thus, if I want to "play" at something I go ahead and play the role: hitchhiker, party animal, geek, technician, professor, bird watcher, sailor, professor, coach, runner, adult. The last is the hardest, but if I make it play rather than job then life is so much lighter. I suppose the guiding principle here is to unchain your imagination, free your inner child, and go play at whatever you want.