Living, Dying, and Playing

Leo Flowers is a TEDx speaker, counselor, and stand-up comedian.  He's also the host of "Before You Kill Yourself", a suicide prevention podcast. 

 

In one of his recent episodes, "Play: Reduce pain, pressure and build belonging and purpose," Leo utilizes a quote by Benjamin Franklin:  "We don't stop playing because we grow old.  We grow old because we stop playing."  Leo uses Franklin's saying as a springboard to talk about how so many of us take things in life way too seriously.  He then references Joseph Cambell's book "Myths to Live By", and at one point quotes extensively from the book: 

"There's a curious extremely interesting term in Japanese that refers to a very special manner of polite, aristocratic speech known as 'play language'.....whereby instead of saying to a person, for example, 'I see that you have come to Tokyo', one would express the observation by saying, 'I see that you are playing at being in Tokyo.'  The idea being that the person addressed is in such control of his life and his powers that for him everything is a play, a game.  He is able to enter into life as one would enter into a game, freely and with ease.  And this idea is carried even so far that instead of saying to a person: 'I hear that your father has died', you would say rather: 'I hear that your father has played at dying.'"

Leo then talks about he loves this idea that "we are playing in everything that we do" and offers some of his own insights:

"For so many of us, we struggle with grief, belonging, pain, purpose, pressure, and when we use this type of play language, when we realize that our loved ones are 'playing at dying' or that we are 'playing at traveling' or 'playing at work', it allows us to be a bit more detached, because we are re-framing everything in a playful manner, instead of a high-stakes, all-or-nothing, black or white, world-is-coming-to-an-end kind of language.  This gives us a more resilient attitude..."

All in all, a very wonderful and insightful podcast.  You can listen to the full episode here. The episode is from January 30, 2024.

And if you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, here is a link to national suicide hotlines from around the world.  You do not have to suffer alone!