I am glad You brought your notions of play into this discussion Tobin, and
I look forward to getting hold of your book. I especially like the notion
of "high play", and resonate with your reference to this list in that
regard. I have noticed that my motivation for participation in this List
went thru several stages, such as various ego trips like, wanting
acknowledgment, competitiveness, wanting engagement, etc., until now to
where it seems that the "high play" is desirable in its own right. As a
side effect I get to sustain and develop my mental alertness. The
breakthrough insights which We seem to all have, necessarily of different
points and at different times, certainly more than reward the efforts of
posting contributions. An interesting study would be to chart these
breakthrough points for a subset of participants, in order to observe any
commonalities in their emergence or any relationships between them......
On the other hand, the "playing" is more fun, direct and I think
rewarding.
On a related note Tobin... and suspecting that "high play" has large
payoffs for the learning organization, and looking for guidelines for its
inclusion within Personal Mastery... I wonder if You have any suggestions
for my own situation, which I also suspect may be typical of some others
on the list. I have only limited areas in my life in which I really
play.... conceptual play, some sports, intimacy, certain kinds of
conversations.
In general, I resist playing because of some inner attitudes that what I
have to get done in Life is too serious, that I have to stifle my inner
child in order to survive, that others will not understand "my play".
Often play involves inventing the rules as You go along. I have noticed
for example that if such play also involves competition, that I have much
trouble accepting the arbitrariness of rule-breaking. For example when
others bend the rules during a game of miniature golf. I get a lot of
satisfaction from playing in a micro-world where the rules and constraints
are well known and not arbitrary. I suspect that the rules and
constraints in a corporate culture or in business culture, in general pose
similar difficulties for some of us. I know that when it comes to
business, I want to play "my way".
In any case, it seems that a crucial hump for the creativity and openness
which the learning organization requires, is the recovery, if it has been
lost, of the playfulness of our inner child. In everyday life, it seems
even more critical for fulfillment in the present. I note that
story-telling and group stories (like "Lost") have a way of involving the
creativity of our playfulness and mixing it with others in the sandbox of
life. I even tried a couple of months ago, to spontaneously write my own
hero mythology loosely based upon the Parsival story, and including lots
of projected Shadow material. After a promising start however, my
resistance raised its ugly head and I have been to serious to return to
adding to the story.
I guess I am really wanting You or someone else to provide a posting which
will miraculously get me through my "serious" barriers and more into the
fullness of life. I am tired of being so serious. [kind of sounds like I
am getting some reward at being a victim....] Cheers....
P.S. Have You seen the material on the biological necessity of Play in a
recent publication of ReVision (Spring 95)?
-- Doug Seeley InterDynamics Pty. Ltd. (Australia) in Geneva, Switzerland Compuserve: 100433.133