Being Playful

I saw this boy the other day as he was playing with a bottle cap. He was bursting with energy, running around the hall, kicking the cap and chasing after it. Of course he wanted to get some attention from the people passing by and wanted to show off his skills as he was jumping in an acrobatic fashion in the air and tried to land gracefully on the ground again. He rushed to an information stand and pulled out some of the magazines until they all fell on the ground. Almost having have wanted to elicit this kind of incident he made a loud gasp and looked over to his mom who gave him a disapproving look, but didn’t bother to raise her voice. She must have gotten used to this kind of behavior from her son who she knew to be quite a rascal.

Then, in another instance, he ran around the room again only to bump into two adults who were at first surprised to suddenly stand in front of this smiling boy, but then in a split second their faces also revealed a smile of their own. Not knowing how to respond at first, one of them ruffled the boy’s hair, smiled at him and then they both moved along. The boy seemed to love this kind of interaction. He seemed to just wait for these kinds of things and was eager for the next encounter, whatever it might be. Then, he found his bottle cap again and kicked it down the hallway only to dash right after it again releasing a happy little giggle alongside with it.

When I see this kind of behavior I start wondering about how lots of adults have lost this playfulness in their lives. Only too often does life become too mundane for adults. We seem to be stuck in a routine that is all too hard to get out of again. Of course, I don’t think that adults should be completely like children again—which would mean not knowing individual limits and responsibilities—but it seems to me that playfulness has a great value for our lives which we often forget to appreciate. Playfulness means to look at life with joy again; it means to enjoy life and be content in the moments that come about everyday. It also means to be in a different state of mind: One that is not preoccupied with the mundane problems of life (not that there aren’t real challenges) and not stuck in the normal patterns of behavior we so often find ourselves to be in. It means to deny the notion that life is just a boring ride that we just happen to find ourselves on.

Of course boredom is an interesting topic in itself to think about (and you can read my take on it in German here ), but what I want to point out here is that being in a certain state of mind, namely that of indifference, not just limits our outlook on life but also dulls our experience of it. Being in such a state can often lead to a very dim outlook on life. “Why bother with greeting the people around me, nothing will come of it” could be such an expression of this attitude. In fact, it is easy to see and to feel a state of indifference in many people when you just take a walk down any street in a city. Where does such a feeling come about? Why do people don’t really care about life as a whole anymore?

There are probably many reasons for this attitude and behavior: stress, lack of strong social bonds, the feeling of having no purpose in life, limited financial resources, personal dissatisfaction etc. While it is a challenge to overcome hardships in life, change starts with a shift in the outlook one has on it. The boy playing with his bottle cap with his childish playfulness did not have this feeling of indifference towards life. There must be a different state of mind that is present within a mind that knows playfulness. A state of mind that can see the little things in life and is able to appreciate them. In such a state even a bottle cap can become all-encompassing and reveal the mysteries and secrets of life. Perhaps it is something we can all do a bit more often in our lives: cherish the small things and appreciate the ephemeral moments that make life so much more worth living.