Playing Play

So, I suppose a small little introduction is needed. I’m Francisco, and I consider myself a gamer of all kinds, whether in a weekend pick-up game of poker, Civilization V with friends via Steam (Steam ID = WizX2126), a shoot-a-round in the gym or virtually in NBA 2k11, or a simple (and almost archaic) game of chess that rarely follows the morals set forth by Benjamin Franklin. As we discussed this past class, the varied and subjective concept of ‘play’, regardless of whatever types of form or structure (or unstructure) we try to define it with, is continuously and increasingly becoming a part of life, especially in regards to mine.

It slowly dawned on my as the class went by, and especially afterwards, that my life is in a constant motion of ‘play’. Listening to music, counting how many step can fit in a sidewalk square, crunching a wasted paper into a ball for the rim of the recycling bin - even the things I do at my internship (in the marketing department for Jazz at Lincoln Center) I consider to be ‘play’, especially with regards to fun, learning, and challenge. I suppose it’s fitting that dictionary.com has 90+(ish) definitions of the word ‘play’.

But then, while reading one of our next articles, ‘Sport as Ritual’ by Susan Birrell, I realized that play poured throughout my life even without me being the one doing the actual playing. I watch play (specifically sports) basically whenever I’m remotely near a television or an internet connection. For example, as I’m writing this, I have a hockey game begging for my attention, trying to tell me of the power of its rituals, and in the other room, the eerie sounds of Dead Space 2 echo behind the sound of ice being skated on.

Play has become a natural constant in my life simply because of what it is - natural.