Welcome to the silly season!

It’s August, it is hot and we have entered what people call “the silly season.” Weird stories appear on the news and all around the country, there are play schemes drawing children in to silly games and time together. The word “silly” comes from a Greek work ‘Selig’ meaning happy and blessed. Even the Greeks knew that being silly and engaging in play was a blessed experience. But play is not a waste of time. The Greek philosopher Plato said:

You can discover more about a person in an hour

of play than in a year of conversation.

Play does much for those who share it and it has many therapeutic impacts on the individual and builds a sense of community and perspective. Play makes us wiser.

Don Bosco's work began with play and it remains at the centre of his spirituality. To play means to be in the present moment. It means being together without any other agenda. It allows the world to turn without you for a while and creates a space for people to be together with games and entertainment or alone with a hobby.

Those involved in play lose themselves in a flow of activity and find themselves liberated and energised by what they do. In spiritual terms playing takes a person into the flow of life that many religious traditions call the spirit. Those who play are liberated for a while from the past and from the future to simply be in the present moment. Spirituality recognises the present moment as the sacred space where meaning unfolds and so play is a sacred and a privileged pathway into the mystery of each life. 

When they Hindus speak of the creation of the universe do not call it the work of God, they call it the play of God. They use the term "Vishnu lila" where Vishnu is God and lila is play. They see all of the universe as God's playground. The Jewish scripture also recognises that there is a wisdom that delights and is ever at play in God's presence (Proverbs 8.30)

Jesus himself was able to relax with others and went out to celebrate with food and drink and friends regularly.

Therefore, there is a sacredness about space, free time and especially in social life and creative living. Don Bosco recognised the playground, whatever shape it might take, as the place where we touch a sacred presence. In the flow of that presence, we come alive, delight in life, learning things that conscious thought can never teach us. So, when you see community groups, schools, and parishes running play schemes they are doing a lot more than keeping young people off the streets, they are saving their souls, teaching them to be human and introducing them to the mystery of the present moment.

Pray for play workers in this silly season, they do more good than they will ever know.

"Run, jump, make noise- but do not sin" Don Bosco