Just for fun

There was a column in the Finnish giveaway newspaper “100” on Wednesday by Tarja Veiniaho, in which she told about her 9-year old daughter’s age crisis. The girl was worried that she hadn’t been playing enough; that she’d grow up and couldn’t play anymore. The mother wrote that compared to that realization, the age crisis of the 30, 40 or 50 year milestones is nothing.

It’s possible I’m not reading this correctly, but I suspect that she meant it literally. I can say that sometimes I do long for the carefree times of playing all day. But most of the time I don’t long for times of playing, because I continue to play.

Too many adults forget play. It isn’t considered grown-up to play. I’m certain that I’ll live longer because I continue to play, and certainly I’m happier because I continue to play. I recall several comments by girls of my age from years gone, ridiculing the boys for continuing to play. Girls grow up faster and sadly it’s the way of our society that growing up means stopping to play.

I think that the very usual 50s age crisis is a sort of realization that you’ve been “grown up” for long enough, now you can play again. The kind of playing we practice changes with the times; kids play with dolls, adults might play with cars.

Do stuff just for fun.