I recently picked up ‘Play’ by Stuart Brown. Brown give a long list of reasons why we should all take care to include play and playfulness in our lives. It would seem that play is essential for brain development as well as for problem solving, in adults as well as children. Indeed, the returns we get on the resources we devote to play are almost as high as those we get on our investments in sleep.
2009 is a dark time for many of the working wounded. I suspect it is only natural to lose one’s instinct to play. As I read this book, though, I wondered if the quickest route to a better economy and society might not be to increase the playfulness with which we go about our lives and work…