Play Time

It is a pleasant Labor Day afternoon. I decided to write on the wild side which only means I have brought out my iPad to the front porch. I'm sitting at the little red and white table, enjoying the breeze and being musically entertained by the slight movement of wind chimes...wind chimes with a very nice alto resonance to them. The only noise that can overpower the music of the wind are the cars going by on the road. Last year Roy and I found out that this part of the world takes Labor Day seriously and most all the small and interesting shops are closed. I considered a trip over to Barbers Orchard but we have plenty of apples and I would only be going for the apple cider donuts, which although are delicious, I do not need. I kept putting off going knowing if I caved mostly likely they would be sold out by the afternoon. So after a trip to pick up meds and go through Zips Car wash and a fine Labor Day lunch of hot dogs and chips, I'm ready to settle in for the rest of the day. I need to run the vacuum cleaner and do a few other things, but all that can wait. I did remember to leave a message at the A/C place for the call back tomorrow to set up an appointment. It looks like by next week the evening temps will be in the high 50's but this week is not cooperating with fall and trying to stay a little warmer than usual.

This week I have been thinking about a happening from very long ago and it must be due to the fact that we celebrate our thirty eighth wedding anniversary this week. When we were first married I still played a lot of softball and I think I was playing for two teams. Roy was out of town quite a bit when we first married traveling and auditing all over this land. He too played on a softball team, a church team. Well, he was on the team and he enjoyed it because he was on the field or dugout with his friends. Like he had done so many times for me, I sat in the bleachers cheering our church team to victory but I was especially cheering on Roy. Being athletic is not Roy's strong suite but determined, focused and tenacious are his strengths. He went to bat time after time, striking out or hitting to short stop. Then one night on the ball fields at Second Baptist the mighty Roy came to bat...it was his night because Roy hit a double only thing, he didn't run to second to make it a double. He was so used to hitting and legging out to at least try and beat the throw to first base, he just kept running straight after touching first, never looking for the ball or listening to the first base coach. His teammates were yelling at him and from those bleachers I was doing the same...go to second...go to second. He never heard any of us, he was so focused trying to get to first base. We all cheered for him but afterwards the softball player came out of me, not encouraging wife. Good thing I didn't have a pen and paper cause I would have probably diagrammed out what he should have done but knowing me I probably told him at least five or six times what he needs to do when he gets another hit. He didn't need instruction, no he needed to hear from me good job, period, not with a codicil attached to the end of the good job.  It was just a softball game. There was nothing other than fun. No one was trying out and it was not a life or death matter. The game was purely recreation, oh we always want to win in our recreation, but bottom line it was just play. Play is my One Word for the year and don't think I have forgotten about it after writing so many posts about it during the first part of this year. Now several articles by various publications are emphasizing our need for play both as children and as grown up children. It adds so much to life and it seems counter intuitive. This weekend I read a great article about the playfulness in God's creation. Since I don't tend to the rule maker side of life, being playful is a six sense but I know rule makers and those who need to control through order and regimen have a difficult time with the whole play concept. Roy used to lean heavily to that side but as the years have gone by and with my stellar influence, he leans less and less toward regimen and allotment of time for fun things because well, there is serious stuff to be done. No, he is much better at being at ease and not having life lived according to a certain time. I wouldn't be giving full due to how Roy used his non-athletic look to win lots and lots of racquetball tournaments. He did what he does best, he read about the game, of how to play and how to win and he translated his book learning to court presence. He would go into those tournaments looking as nerdy as possible and all the macho guys who saw him felt like, oh yea, this victory is in the bag. Then Roy proceeded to beat them by not trying to ramp up to their power. No, he played softball racquetball with lots of lobs and well placed shots.

We all need that sense of play, we just need to find the game or games where we have the most fun and well....just play. It does a body and a brain good.