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Psychologist David Elkind, in his book The Power of Play, identifies several characteristics of play, including:

1. No worry of failure—whether you win or lose doesn’t matter.
2. Balance between challenge and skill—some risk heightens the experience, but not so much that known talents can’t be relied upon.
3. Action and awareness merge—you’re so involved you’re on autopilot.
4. Self-consciousness disappears—you don’t worry about how you look, if you’re good enough, etc.
5. The activity is an end in and of itself—the doing is what matters, not any reward you get for it.

This experience of delight in the task itself is not just a luxury, it is a need.

We need the lightness of being that play creates to better face the fact that our lives will end in death—and what could be more absurd?

We need the lightness of being that play affords when we do the serious work of relieving, in whatever way we can, the hundreds of thousands around the world who are dying from disease, malnutrition, abuse, neglect, and war.

We need the lightness of being that play offers when bringing groups in conflict together so that bonds can be forged and new hope for peace and healing encouraged.

We need the lightness of being that play brings to young Black men feeling hopeless, police officers feeling under attack and undocumented immigrants fearfully hiding.

We need play to face the work of the world.

We need play to maintain our emotional, spiritual, and physical balance so that we can do the work that desperately needs doing.

Come, let us play, even as we work.

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Rev. Alison Wilbur Eskildsen

Parish Minister at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens, Georgia

Rev. Eskildsen joined the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Athens, Georgia, in August 2010. Prior to her arrival she was Assistant Minister and Director of Religious Education at the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church in Reston, Virginia. A fourth generation UU, her family moved around during her childhood but joined Unitarian churches each place they lived. Formative experiences at the Unitarian Rowe Camp and in Rev. Eskildsen’s Liberal Religious Youth group during high school drew her to ministry. Upon graduation from Albion College Rev. Eskildsen began working at the National Geographic Society (NGS) expecting to stay long enough to earn tuition for seminary. Somehow 25 years passed while directing elite photographers and developing books, articles and other projects. In 2001 she left NGS and began her pursuit to ordained ministry.

Rev. Eskildsen graduated from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, and was ordained in 2009. During her training she served as Summer Minister at the UU Congregation of Fairfax, VA, and Intern Minister at the UU Church of Arlington, VA. She served as Student Chaplain at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC, and participated in a housing mission at South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Rev. Eskildsen describes herself as a humanistic religious naturalist. She derives spiritual renewal from the vast wonder of nature and aspires each day to live out our UU principles. She is passionate about energetic and meaningful worship and is committed to transforming lives and making the world more just.

Latest posts by Rev. Alison Wilbur Eskildsen (see all)

• The Path of Play - September 1, 2019