11th Avenue four friends imaginary and real

A group of people exists that likes to prevent the flow of these truths. Their strongest tool comes from an activity called “Fear this or if not this then this.” I don’t see how they got hold and retain hold of this process. It seems so clearly not part of our innate nature. By steeping us in fear and pessimism, they challenge us to a different stance than the obvious one of “Believe me.” Maybe they want to have someone really invite them to experience play again. Maybe they really want to play a few rounds of “Now I Feel Less Anxious.”

W teaches me that pessimism is a luxury
I cannot afford.

If discouraged, be discouraged consciously. Don’t despair, just be discouraged; time and progress help us process something worth attending. Or if it is despair, then despair consciously. When we get discouraged we can play out our personal discouragement. Hopefully with this amount of attention to play, we can play the discouragement consciously. We can find the humor in how we play it. And we can make a choice to continue playing it or choose a different activity.

Here comes a story of going out to play Saturday. Call this going out for “plenty.” I want to get outside for a walk. While I walk, I realize deeper inside that I want to find something while I walk. The day before I bought myself a present of a special gold ring. On this day I discover it came from my birth year and looked like a ring I have imagined several times in the past. Usually I ignore these material attachments, attributing them to marketing. I also have found a torn dollar bill, a half dollar, so to speak literally, which I turn into a little money fetish. As I walk I remember how much fun I have and how clearly I feel that everything I need already exists at my fingertips. As I pass a dumpster behind a farmer’s market, I resist looking inside. Then I change course and find a bag of 25 peppers, mostly red peppers. At first I can’t pick them up, though wrapped in their own clean bag. I smile when I think how I just want to find something and here I find these peppers. In fact the bag contains other rejected vegetables. I carry my peppers to the house. I feel like Peter Piper. They forgot to tell us that he picked them out of the trash. I feel lightly amused. I make stuffed red peppers for dinner. I stuff them with leftovers.

C teaches me that plenty of time exists to attend to each idea and every thing.

Once I wished for an ideal playmate. Sometimes I get together with him and we share the play adventure. Make friends for play time. Reopen the world to play. He would have delighted in the peppers where another would have grimaced.





Playmate Exercise #3: Playmate Map

Think back on favorite playmates in life. Collect a series of memories that stand out. Make a map of who played with whom during different periods, where they played, when they played. Try and find some detail that strongly evokes each memory. Arrange the memories as a reminder of what makes us playful to be around. Start with the clearest and proceed to vague sensations. Write these along a spiral. Start with the earliest memory and moving outward pass toward the present. Or curve the memories inward. Involve someone else in recalling their memories and making a map. See if memories trigger other memories. See how different the maps become. Try and find common attributes of shared play experiences. If enjoyed, involve still others; see how maps overlap.