The Purpose of Play, The Play of Purpose
A friend once told me the story of a chained husky approached by a polar bear in Canada’s Hudson Bay several years ago. Polar bears have been known to kill and eat sled dogs, so when two wildlife photographers saw the bear draw near, they braced for horror. But the dog began to play, and the bear, astonishingly, played back.
My fantasy would say that it was play that saved them both, more important to the bear than its hunger and a universal language for the dog to tap into.
I often think of this story whenever I’m caught in fear, especially my performance anxiety. It inspires me to experiment, move - throw it all up in the air.
And because my work revolves around discovering authentic purpose, I find myself asking how can play support that journey?
Well, here’s what I’ve noticed in myself and others.
Often when we are in survival mode, purpose is the last thing we think about, although at our core we may deeply want it.
Play dissolves separation, restores curiosity and brings the body out of defense mode. For me there is permissiveness to it, a sense that nothing needs to be fixed or going anywhere.
If trust were at the heart of living a soulful and adventurous life, then play would be its biggest ally.
Does it have a purpose? Need it have a purpose? Play is endlessly creative and continually self justifying.
I’m playing with playfulness and I notice I’m experimenting more, I see more possibility than I see problems and my fear of failure is waning. But I don’t want to hold these up as reasons for why I, or you, ‘should’ play.
If someone tells me to be more playful (as many have), I freeze. The same way comedians groan when asked to ‘say something funny.’
We’re all at our best when play comes through us, not from effort. Rather than chasing an outcome we find that something is already moving, and it’s a joy to follow it and keep up.
Perhaps play isn’t something we do, but something that moves through us when we’re open enough to it.
The more I observe its relationship to purpose the more I see there isn’t much to separate the two.
True purpose is always alive and evolving, something that we follow, rather than generate ourselves. When we are being playful and purposeful we both forget ourselves and find ourselves.
Play dissolves fear and effort; in the ensuing openness, purpose reveals itself as something already moving through us.
Court it. In its seeming indifference to purpose it will, ironically, lead you there.