It is the start of soccer season here. So, I will be sermon-writing and relaxing after worship tomorrow watching this guy on the left play. Between this son and my beagle, I have constant reminders to play. If only I took the hint more often. May each of us find a way to play, to laugh today.
Drew Leder, author of Games for the Soul notes in the introduction to this book:
“I realized that the way of play was a part of all religions. St. Paul proclaimed himself a ‘fool for Christ.’ Jews honor the Sabbath, that time to stop working and to take pleasure in life. Hindus say that the universe was created as ‘lila,’ divine play. (After all, the Omnipresent Eternal One needed something to do.) Muslim Sufis teach through jokes about Mulla Nasrudin, a laughable sage/fool. Native Americans celebrate bawdy trickster-figures. (Try attending a Cherokee “Booger Event.”) Buddhists practice meditative games of breathing, attention, and joyful presence. Zen teachers poke fun at dogma, as in master Feng’s pronouncement: ‘The Buddha is a bullheaded jail keeper, and the Patriarchs are horse-faced old maids!’ It seemed the whole world was playing with Spirit in a thousand delightful ways.”
