According to Arnold J. Toynbee, an English historian, “The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.”
I used to say that Mike often made his work seem like he was playing. He usually enjoyed any “hands on” project he was working on. Those red tape, bogged down, paper trail jobs were actually things he didn’t really enjoy doing, even though he always accomplished them with excellence, too.
Often as a child, my piano practice sometimes seemed like playing instead of working, because I really enjoyed playing new songs. I couldn’t ever say that about most academic assignments, because they just seemed like pure work to me. But, music had some fun in it.
In college, I started out as a music education major, then switched to psychology, then switched to elementary education. I guess I sort of drifted away from the fun stuff to the stuff where I thought the most jobs would be available.
So, why did I end up being an elementary teacher? Perhaps it was because I could always identify with those kids who perceived what I was asking them to do as WORK. I always tried to make it as fun as I could for them.
But, we all know that all of school work is not fun work.
Mr. Rogers, (Fred Rogers) said, “Play is really the work of childhood.” I couldn’t agree more. The fact that our current society is trying to take the “play” out of the preschool and kindergarten years, and force the kids to do academics all day long is just too much for this Nana.
Those early years should be teaching children how to listen, share, speak, learn, think, reflect, dream, and play. Children learn so many life skills during those early years, especially, through playing!
If they haven’t been taught how to be respectful and honest at home, then hopefully they will experience those qualities at school. School becomes a melting pot of different ways to learn important things about living life in this world with others. It makes a child look at others instead of just looking at himself. It opens up their world.
According to American author, James A. Michener, “The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both.”
I think my Mike truly mastered the art of living because he combined his work and play so well that often you couldn’t tell which he was doing. I think it’s safe to say that most people never accomplish that!
I know that the closest I’ve ever felt that way was when I was doing something around our home that was work but it was something I really enjoyed, too. There were many, many days that I simply enjoyed holding my babies, watching my toddlers, and just being with my young children and teenagers. I often didn’t think of it as work, but I knew it was at the time. I’ve had days when I enjoyed planting shrubs or flowers. There were many days when I enjoyed hanging wallpaper or painting. I had many work days when I loved baking pies, cakes, or cookies and it was actually fun. In Colorado, I froze fruits, dried fruits, and canned fruits and that was actually a lot of work but it was pretty fun, too.
It all depends on what we personally think is fun! Work that is fun is different for every single person. It’s doubly fun when we find someone else who thinks that type of work is fun, too, and we can do it together.
It’s always great if we can blur the line between work and fun. It’s more fun that way for big people and little people.
Life goes too quickly. The old proverb is true, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!”
Since we all have to work in life, we should encourage children to try to find a job that they think will be fun! There isn’t anything wrong with that advice, as long as they are accomplishing work!
The happiest people at work are those who are enjoying the work.
