Just Play

 

I heard a radio interview with Cy Curnin of the band, The Fixx, and he said something that I’ve been hearing more and more from various older artists and non-artists alike: 

Of learning to get along inter-personally, and letting go of the driven, achievement-oriented mindset, he said,

“That work was done a long time ago.”

Which means that now, he and his band are reaping the reward of just playing music together.

“We enjoy each other’s company. It’s paying off now because you’d think, you know, after forty years together we’d be getting a little tired of it, but we’re enjoying it more. We’ve done the stadium thing, we’ve done this and that and the other…we’re not really chasing any goals anymore.”

In other words, he and his bandmates are content to just play. 

And that’s the privilege of growing older and of growing old, isn’t it, that we finally get to just play: having cut loose the baggage of the past; unencumbered now of all the striving and setting of ever higher attainments, credentials, and deeds; healed from whatever it was internally that made life difficult instead of playful. 

Playful—like when we were kids—but with the added wisdom of age that says, 

“Hey, we lost that sense of play once, we’re not ever giving it up again.”

Copyright Barb Harwood