Growing Up is Overrated; Let’s Play

As a young boy I stormed the southeastern beaches of Iwo Jima amid a cauldron of shell bursts and mortar fire. I was flanked by Sergeant Mabry and Private Trull and armed with my M1 Carbine, Ka-Bar combat knife and a supply of standard issue frag grenades. 

Over the next several hours the battle raged. The near hand-to-hand fighting was intense. We captured the first of three airfields and moved toward the island’s rock-strewn northern sector. We lost a lot of good men that day. It was hell. But war is hell, after all.

And that’s where the story begins. 

Unfortunately around 5:45pm my Mom yelled for me to come in. The truth is that the battle for Iwo Jima took place in the deep woods behind my boyhood home. The guns were plastic, the grenades were pinecones and the radios were mostly shoe boxes and duct tape.

My wing men, Sergeant Mabry and Private Trull, were my next door neighbors and best friends. We fought many battles together. Good men. Warriors. We must’ve died 1,000 times on those “beaches” in my own backyard.

I can still find Wiley's house

Riding on my bike with eyes closed

I could name every girl that he took out

And from my memory, dial his house phone

(Ben Rector - Old Friends)

Our deaths were often hastened by enemy sniper fire or an expertly tossed Japanese grenade. Our deaths typically involved a slow motion fall into a pile of soft leaves. Or some other overly-dramatic and highly imaginative demise that launched us airborne. Personally I dove on hundreds of grenades.  

Those were the days. Good times. 

It was a simpler time. A time of freedom. A time of unlimited imagination. A time of boundless energy. A time of friendships. A time of pine cone grenades. 

There were also moments of pure boredom. Moments that inexplicably turned exhilarating without any effort. Like the famous train scene from the classic coming-of-age movie, Stand by Me. I can easily see myself on that train trestle, running at full-steam, diving to narrowly avoid the speeding train.   

Can you take me back when we were just kids

Who weren't scared of getting older?

'Cause no one knows you like they know you

And no one probably ever will

You can grow up, make new ones

But truth is there's nothing like old friends 

'Cause you can't make old friends

The End of Play Time

I often wonder when we lost the ability to play. The ability to be creative and imaginative. The ability to hear the mortar fire, smell the sulfur grenades and sense the danger in a totally make-believe battle. The ability to outrun the speeding train. 

We weren’t limited to just storming the beaches of Iwo Jima. I personally caught the game-winning pass in the Super Bowl. I did it 473 times. That one-handed, sideline catch. Diving expertly past the pylon. Stretching out to break the plane of the goal as time expires. The crowd goes wild. 

Except the pylon was my mailbox.  And the goal line was my driveway. And the ball was a green, Nerf football. 

I can still feel the windows down

Listening to Jimmy Eat World 

Riding 3-wide on Blake's bench seat

My God, it's been ten years now

I would have his back tomorrow

And he'd still fight anyone who tried to touch me

The Benefits of Play

Play has been shown to release endorphins those chemicals known to create the “runner’s high” that we get after vigorous exercise.  Endorphins improve brain functionality, and stimulate creativity make us feel happy. 

”We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.” 

-Charles Schaefer

Maybe it’s the reason why Ellen Degeneres is always so darn happy. The Ellen Show is an American talk-variety show featuring comic Ellen Degeneres. In addition to dancing and interviewing guests, Ellen likes to play games. Here’s a montage of Ellen’s best game playing moments.  

It’s as if your teenage best friend has a killer basement and an unlimited amount of money to play games and pull pranks on strangers. Instead of raging teen hormones, Ellen creates raging Endorphins from laughter.  

It’s no wonder that an average of 4.2M viewers tune in daily. 

And I've got some good friends now

But I've never seen their parents' back porch

I wouldn't change how things turned out

But there's no one in this time zone

Who knows what inline skates that I wore

Play allows us to learn how to be creative and helps nurture critical thinking. It also creates real life, problem-solving skills. And teaches the art of compromise. Critically important life skills outside of the land of make-believe.   

Oh, and it’s fun, too. 

In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Maybe it’s the reason why The Brooklyn Preschool “Mastermind” is so popular. For around $1,000 you can have a preschool-type experience for adults.