As the week draws to a close, so too does my adventure through the book Free Play by Stephen Nachmanovitch. Rather than write a long-winded post reviewing the book, I've decided instead to provide a short summary followed by my favorite highlights.
The Summary
Nachmanovitch's Free Play is an inspiring book that encourages the reader to reawaken their natural gift of creativity. Heaped with historic anecdotes, religious and cultural metaphors, and fair share of musical and artistic references, this book seems geared primarily to artists and musicians. However, if a reader outside of those creative professions chooses to pick this one up, they will not be disappointed. The inspiring stories and suggested activities - well immersed in the text - can wring the creative juices from anyone and would serve business professionals in any industry where a bit of strategy and creative thinking can take you places.
Highlights
As I was reading the book, my mindset was based on games and play. Since those fields are my passion, and the title is Free Play, I kept a running log of the most inspirational quotes and excerpts. [On a side note, the prologue to Free Play is not only inspiring but also cathartic - rather than spoil it, I'll leave it to you, the reader, to enjoy for yourself.] The following are my favorite sections, as drawn from the book:
p. 19, 2nd paragraph - "A walk, following your intuitive promptings, down the streets of a foreign city holds rewards far beyond a planned tour of the tried and true.... As the pattern of people and places unfolds, the trip, like an improvised piece of music, reveals its own inner structure and rhythm. Thus you set the stage for fateful encounters." What an inspiring paragraph. Essentially expanding on the concept of "It's not the destination, but the journey," the writing evokes such a wonderful feeling of exploration and adventure. I remember reading in a flight magazine about a writer who decided to write what basically amounted to a travel guide of his bedroom. Instead of seeing everything as he had for years, he stepped out of his perceptions and for the first time, saw just how remarkable his own room was. Unfortunately, I can't recall the author or I would share the details of the book for those interested.
p. 44 - "Galumphng is the seemingly useless elaboration and ornamentation of activity." Again, the imagery in my mind's eye was wonderful - I pictured Monty Python and the Ministry of Silly Walks. [While researching for this article, I actually stumbled upon Monty Python's Silly Walks Generator, which truly champions the idea of galumphing.] Once again, I thought back to my youth and the impromptu games we would play. I distinctly recall how excited my siblings and I were when we got a new refrigerator. Why? Because it came in an enormous box. We turned the box into a theater, putting it upright and cutting a window on one side. We'd put on shows for each other and for our parents. I can't seem to remember any of the shows that we did, but we had no fear of performance and no formal knowledge of it either, but that didn't stop us.
p. 50, 4th paragraph - Nachmanovitch quotes psychiatrist Donald Winnicott: "...It is in playing and only in playing that the individual child or adult [emphasis mine] is able to be creative and to use the whole personality..." What seems like a luxury to us, time to play, is, as Winnicott puts it, the only way that we are "able to be creative and to use the whole personality." Is he implying that we are incomplete if we do not allow time to play? In my opinion, Winnicott is really saying that play is what allows us to bring out our full potential. I've often felt that we're different when we play, more relaxed and open to possibility. Whether it's a structured activity like a game or an unstructured pursuit, like our improvisational performances in a refrigerator box, opening ourselves does not simply allow ideas to come in, but also to let our whole self shine.
p. 68, 3rd paragraph - The chapter is entitled Practice and rightfully so. The section I am highlighting deals with coming to terms with practice and particularly with the power to choose how we practice. "You don't have to practice boring exercises, but you do have to practice something... If you don't think the result is good, you have the power to change it... In any art we can take the most basic and simple technique, shift it around and personalize it until it becomes something that engages us." Anyone who has been through band in grade school or taken art or singing lessons has likely encountered the rote memorization approach to practice. The teacher says, "Practice the [chords, sol fege, brush stroke, etc.] until you've got it perfect." When you get home, your parents say, "Keep practicing it just like your teacher said." You practice for a while and either a) get it down, b) get frustrated but keep at it or c) get frustrated and give up. Imagine how differently it could turn out if you were empowered to choose how you practice or develop the skill you seek. Because of my passion for both professional development and games, I'm developing a system that incorporates game play into corporate training frameworks, expanding the options that an individual employee or a team has when it comes to honing their skills. In essence, I'm using the concept of selective practice to apply the same concept of selective practice to the career development plans of others.
Finally, there is a G. K. Chesterton quote on page 166 that really inspired me as I create a business and special projects within the same scope of games: "The whole difference between construction and creation is this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists." Think about that line the next time you are sitting down to start a new project or initiative - will you only love it when it's done or is your love of it what drives you to take on the assignment in the first place?
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