Play On, Humans!

Brain cancer is...

...happy to be a part of the human race.

Before arising and while planning our day this morning, we agreed it would be a mostly-stay-at-home-and-work-day today.  That made Darrell sad.  But then we agreed on pizza for dinner, and his frown turned upside down.  Potential pizza makes everything okay.

We didn't spend much time out today, but every minute we did spend out...we saw humans at play.

Craig Park was party, party, party.  Look how many bounce house variations exist, above.  We saw so many gatherings of people enjoying time together.  Our favorite was an epic tug-of-war at a family reunion.  We wanted to sneak in, but we didn't have the family tee-shirts.

Tonight we went out for said pizza:  California Pizza Kitchen at the mall.  We saw more people having fun.  A constant stream of people waited for the experience of enjoying good food in a festive atmosphere. We saw small people in tutus, slightly larger people in sparkly prom dresses, people carrying cakes with flaming candles...  So many people playing!

We have written about play before, so we'll be brief.  To play is to "engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose."  Play is an important part of neotony, the retention of juvenile characteristics into adulthood.   (Click here to hear the play guru, Stuart Brown, explain  it in 28 seconds.) 

Humans are the most neotenous of all species.  Play keeps us learning.  Play keeps us evolving.  Play keeps us young.  Play keeps us alive.

Everything we saw at the park was play.  Everything we saw at CPK was play. 

What a privilege to spend our day with creatures at play.  Here are some virtual play scenes of the day, from Team D members who shared.

In Wisconsin, Meridyth played by hanging in front of a fire while outside raged this spring storm:

In Tennessee, Christine ran 26 plus miles.  That's the weird thing about play:  The player picks the play.

In Perris, CA, Curt played with a grandchild, who played on a train:

Beth and Geoff went on an adventure scavenger hunt in Temecula, CA:

 Play on, humans, play on!