Put play first....

LaurieT came over to my apartment today to help me pack books into boxes. As we packed, we talked, as you do, and our recurring subject was intention, play, and the many dreary aspects  of the Calvinism in which we were reared. Work before play, duty before pleasure, pleasure is suspect and physical pleasure is evil, cleanliness is next to Godliness, the road to hell is paved with good intentions...and so on. 

Buddhism has greater respect for intention than Calvinism. In the Calvinist view, the end is the thing, and if you don’t achieve the goal, the intention is irrelevant. In the Buddhist view, intention shapes the process and the process has more to do with who you are and how you live than does the goal, which could be a delusion anyway. 

Packing these thoughts into my boxes, we laughed, took breaks, went for lunch, and finally abandoned the packing to go pick and eat some blueberries in her back yard. Heaven. 

Laurie reads a blog by a fellow called Teacher Tom. He advises us to put play first, both with children and in our own lives, so that we end up living our dreams and not serving our irritations. Coming on the heels of that blip about my women’s play group, I thought some of you might enjoy hearing how Teacher Tom makes that case.