The Easy Button

Can play be a virtue? According to the Ancient Greeks, yes. Eutrapelia is the word they used to describe the habit of well-ordered recreation. It is the mean between being boorish (having too little fun) and being a buffoon (having too much fun).

What you choose to do for play also matters. Some forms of recreation do a better job at refreshing us and what works well varies from person to person too. In the book called Super Habits, Andrew V. Abela gives an interesting test to discern whether something is truly restorative play for you. It’s called “the easy button.” Here’s how it works. 

Suppose you think that exercise is your form of play. Ask yourself, if you could get all the benefits of exercise in an instant by pressing a magic button, would you do it? If your answer is yes, then exercise doesn’t count as eutrapelia for you. If your answer is no, it does. 

For me, cooking passes this test. Maybe it sounds crazy to some but I enjoy the process of creating a meal. So much so, in fact, that it feels similar to deep prayer. Even if I had an easy button, most of the time, I wouldn’t use it. All bets are off when my kids are hungry. Maybe I’d use it then. 

This week, I invite you to examine your play: 

What activities do I consider restful? For which of these activities would I press the easy button? For which would I not? What would I change to improve my play? 

God bless,
Dan