P L A Y !

 P L ^A   _Y      

Let’s play. Let’s have fun.

That’s the invitation I issue at the beginning of a new creative writing class or new writer’s circle. Let’s play, play with words, play with ideas, play with expressions. Let’s explore, where there is no right or wrong. All is acceptable. Take time to learn what works, what works even better.

Take time, and throw it out the window. In the midst of play, time and energy are limitless. Be a carefree child.

When is the last time you have felt like that? My best guess is when you were on a holiday. For Jill in Baggage burdens. her best time of play is their Hawaiian holiday, her delayed honeymoon.

While sitting on a private beach in Hawaii, she wakes her husband by dropping little pebbles on his leg, his chest, off the side of his face. They race off Joseph’s body like insects until he snatches them and sees Jill laughing. One night in Hawaii Jill dresses up for supper and then bewitches her husband to fulfill her sexual fantasies. Another night she adopts the role of a siren to lure Joseph, an exciting make believer stranger, to her condo suite.

The Hawaii environment offers Joseph times of play. After Jill’s pebble awakening, Joseph becomes Don Jaun. He scoops Jill into his arms and races down the beach, creating the impression she’s about to be dropped into the cold ocean water. Another time, spurred by an early morning rooster crow, he slips out of their gated resort. He boldly explores an impoverished community, before he finds baron like properties and the roosters’ homes.

Play enables one to escape from stressful situations. One night while driving home from Edmonton in a blinding snowstorm, Joseph recalls that his parents died in a similar situation. Stressed, he pulls up to a motel. To rescue Joseph from his disturbing past, Jill invites her husband to participate in an adapted version of a play her drama club considered. The play is about a lonely husband who slips out of a party with an attractive woman. They go to a motel. Jill instructs Joseph to register them as Mr. And Mrs. Smith as happened in the play.

When has play rescued you from the real world?

Imagine what life would be like when work is play. Next week’s blog, explores work as play by examining Joseph and Thomas gardening and marketing life style and Amber’s passion for painting.