Huizinga: We all need play

It is comforting to get some acknowledgement that play is an “interlude in life,” but it is also “integral to life.[1]” I completely agree that everyone needs play in their life, the interruption of daily life and the real world that is not so nice all of the time. No matter how grown up someone is, play is so necessary in maintaining sanity, especially in this day and age. We live in a society obsessed with work and money and business and material wealth, when really, what makes people most happy is going to that baseball game one time a year or playing with a small child in a park....Huizinga notes that play is completely seperate from other areas of life, but it is just as important. It is not a component of survival, like food or water, but is something that all humans experience,and inherently do. I want to always know that it is ok to play, and that even in graduating college and going out to work, that the real world is not the only thing I have to look forward to.

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[1] Huizinga, J. “Nature and Significance of Play,” 8