"...we grow old because we stop playing."

The other day I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about the good ol' days: Summers spent in the mountains of Virginia playing games with my cousins, Sunday afternoons when everyone took naps and we had to find ways entertain ourselves, those days on the playground when Jeremy and Marcus were hogging the monkey bars and we had to resort to other means of excitement. I started thinking about all the games we used to play and started to wonder, "Why we don't still play them?"

Okay so maybe we're busier, have other responsibilities and priorities. We're older now and have to behave as such so that means no games, right?

A few years ago someone sent me one of those Snowball fight-email-forward things. (I mean really, how lame are we that we can't even have a REAL snowball fight but have to have one via email instead?) At the very bottom of the email, which by the way was complete with an animated snowball splattering its cutsey little face onto the inside of the computer screen, was a quote from George Bernard Shaw.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." 

I have no real idea who this George Bernard Shaw guy is, BUT he makes a good point. As we get older we start taking on life: we get jobs, we work toward degrees, we start families, we take on leadership positions throwing every bit of ourselves into trying to succeed in those things. We take on so much and forget to enjoy whatever it is we're doing (yes, believe it or not, once upon a time, we chose to do those things because we actually liked them). We get so wrapped up in all the things we once loved and they begin to act as anti-younging agents... leaving no time for FUN! Oh sure, there's the occasional drink with a friend or movie night with the girls. But what about real, live, let loose, ask-no-questions, grass stained, music blasting, wind in your hair, spin until you're dizzy, laugh until it hurts fun?

No wonder we're getting old! In fact, it's a miracle we aren't eating at the K&W Cafeteria and buying Poligrip!We're not making any time for ourselves to have fun. And we've spent so much time thinking that we're "too old for that" we're probably also a little afraid of that much fun. We might look silly and we just can't have that... can we?

So, I have compiled a list with as many games as I could think of. Play them in your class. Play them at your chapter meetings. Play them with your coworkers. Play them with your family. Play them for yourself. Play them to stay young.

If you have some to add, feel free to share!

The Games We Play(ed)

• Bloody Murder: It's a combination of hide and seek and Tag. The person who's "IT" counts while everyone goes and hides. When IT finds the first hider, the hider yells "BLOODY MURDER" at the top of his lungs and everyone comes out of hiding and tries to run to base without being tagged by IT. 
• Red Rover: Oh come on, this one's a classic. Need I even explain?
• Dodge ball (in the circle): You know, not the kind they made that ridiculous movie about but the kind we played in elementary school. Half of the group makes a circle and throws balls (hopefully very soft, squishy, painless balls) at the other half of the group who are in the middle of the circle.
• Duck Duck Goose: Once again, need I explain?
• Chinese Freeze Tag: A funny twist on traditional freeze tag, to get "un-frozen" someone has to crawl between the legs of the frozen players without getting tagged themselves. Oh just the thought makes me giggle.
• Capture the Flag: Divided into two teams, each group has a set of flags (though because we were poor flags were often substituted by cones, rocks, shoes, hats, or whatever else we could find.) Members of the opposite teams try to cross over into "enemy territory" to steal their flags without being tagged. The first team with all the flags wins.
• Red light, Green light: The caller yells "Green Light" and you dance, move, walk, run, jump, climb. Just be ready to freeze in whatever awkward position you've got yourself into as soon as the caller yells RED LIGHT!
• Arm Wrestling: When's the last time you arm wrestled? Can't remember either, can you?
• Thumb Wrestling: One, Two, Three, Four, I declare a thumb war!
• Mother May I?: Yes, you may.
• Simon Says!
• Dance!: The Hustle, Thriller, The Macarena, The Electric Slide, The Chicken Dance. Heck, if you can remember the steps just do-si-do with someone until you're dizzy.

Now, who's up for a game of Red Rover? :-D

Writing about Fear seemed appropriate so close to Halloween...

As I once said, this blog used to be just a random collection of my ramblings about daily life, the things that bugged me, the things that made me laugh. Okay, well, now that I think of it, it hasn't really changed much. But when I switched over from random ramblings to random ramblings about teaching, I took down the old blogs and hid them in a word document I have saved on my computer. The other day when I was practicing my activity avoidance techniques, I stumbled across this file and started reading. I came across one particularly spirited entry from a day when something had bugged me.

The story went that my dog, who, though now is very large and ferocious, was a puppy at the time, escaped my apartment and ran out into the yard where a burly man was walking from the parking lot to his apartment. Upon seeing my puppy, Jasper, he proceeded to squeal like a little girl and began running. Now, anyone who has ever had a puppy or even a full grown dog knows that if you run from a dog, he will chase you. So of course, the moment "the man" started running from my dog, of course Jasper playfully chased after him. I watched dumbfounded as "the man" ran toward no apparent safe haven from an animal that could not possibly cause him any harm... well, not much anyway.

Reading back over the story, which in it's original form was far more drawn out and amusing (even if a bit insensitive,) I realized two things. First, it wasn't Jasper who made "the man" run. Jasper was a 4 month old puppy who was more interested in the grass than anyone walking across the parking lot. What made him run was his fear. His perception of something mostly harmless caused fear... and so he ran. And secondly, once Jasper realized that, for whatever reason, "the man" was running away, it was nothing but instinct to chase after him.

At that moment, like a ton of bricks, it hit me. My brain started whirling thinking about all the things I'd been running from lately. And every single one of those things was, without a doubt, chasing me down. In fact, most of them were gaining on me because my fear of them was holding me back; fear that an attempt, no matter how valiant, might end in failure. Fear that pain might be seen as weakness. Fear of taking the next step not knowing exactly where it lead. Fear of accepting a challenge I might not be able to overcome with flying colors. 

So now, it's time to stop running. Running takes a lot of energy. If we were using that energy to run in the right direction, imagine what amazing things we could do. If we can just get past the fears that hold us back, chances are, the thing we feared isn't really that scary after all. Most likely, our fear blew it all out of proportion anyway and we had nothing to be afraid of in the first place. And even if there is something to be afraid of, there's no way around it so we might as well face it, head on, and on our own terms. One way or another, we'll work through them and past them. You may not always come out looking too pretty on the other side, but at least you'll be on the other side, with your fears behind you and no where to go but forward.