Library Disciple

Playing is something I’m not very good at anymore.
I’m not sure when it happened, but suddenly I got overwhelmingly serious.
It’s not a good thing.
My fun comes from going to the library and reading (of course), running  marathons, working in the garden or vacuuming my car (it’s still new and shiny).  Not exactly a barrel full of monkeys.

I try to have fun and play when I’m in my classroom, it’s the only way to get through the day.   I crack very corny jokes, talk to myself, dance and act out science and social studies concepts (I perform an excellent water cycle and you should see me as a hatching chick!)

I try to have fun with my daughter too.  Last weekend we decided to clip (shave) our dog and ended up in hysterics on the lawn after seeing our handiwork (our once beautiful Golden Retriever now looks  like a sheep sheered with a weed whacker).  We usually find something to laugh about from our day - does that count as play?

I used to have fun going out to eat, watching t.v., socializing and traveling,  but in my current incarnation I’m stuck in a  fuddy-duddy rut.  Since I am often made aware of this weakness, I was interested in the latest news from the Library Journal about a “Play Symposium”.  The moderator was Liz Dansforth, a LJ Game blogger and Librarian at Pima County Public Library in Tucson, AZ.  The goal of the event was to encourage libraries to take a more playful approach with information and learning.

I was off and running to see what kind of fun they were having in Pima County.  I wasn’t disappointed.  They’re having lots of fun and playing with history, art, film, politics and even books.  Maybe if I lived in Tucson my Buffalo seriousness would thaw and I could have fun again?  If it did, I might hang up my gardening gloves and run down to the library to:

• Watch “Welcome to Shelbyville” a documentary about contemporary immigration  - I know that doesn’t sound like too much fun but I’m just warming up and maybe they have popcorn?

• Enjoy the Centenarian Oral History Project in honor of Arizona’s 100th Birthday (Valentine’s Day 2012).  To celebrate they are interviewing 100 year old residents that have spent their lives in Pima County.  Check out the great interview with William McNerney,  a 101 year old resident of Tuscon.

• But my favorite?  Spring Freecycle - a spring cleaning swap.  This taps into yard sale fun AND it’s free, that’s my idea of a good playdate!  People bring in anything from their house that’s in good shape and swap it for other people’s junk - talk about win-win!  I laughed out loud when I read, “participants are asked not to bring any large items, such as refrigerators or motorcycles.”

Is play really necessary when we get older?
Why not just cut it out of the schedule and get more done?

• play help us relax and reduce stress, a factor that is critical to our health...maybe checking out all the new books at the library is play, it certainly is relaxing, even if I can’t read them all.
• play allows us to be creative and express ourselves...that’s why I like playing in the garden and writing this blog everyday.
• play helps us learn and solve problems, trying too hard to figure everything out rarely works, playing around with ideas and letting them stew on the brain’s back burner can be more effective.
• play helps us build skills; when we gain competence at a task we feel more confident and have more fun.
• play helps us connect with others, build relationships and join communities of support. Like the having a playdate with thousands of other runners during a marathon.

So, play doesn’t necessarily mean recreation or entertainment.  To play is to be engaged in a pleasurable, mostly unstructured, activity that allows us to be creative, to experiment, to learn and to connect with others.  

Maybe I’m not doing so bad after all (but I still want to visit Pima County).