The Power of Play in Creativity and Life
Could it be that playful-ness is a more enlightened state of being
than we have been domesticated to consider?
The brightly lit brunch restaurant exuded an air of elegance and protocol. Voices muffled—suits and stockings under white linen tablecloths.
A trio of musicians began playing the song, “What a Wonderful World.”
The petite woman in her 70’s was just returning to her table from the women’s lounge when the song began. With curly grey hair and a pudgy middle, she wore a flowy floral dress that caressed her arms and a hem that dropped just above her ankles. She began swaying her hips as she walked on:
“I see friends shaking hands saying, how do you do? They’re really saying I love you.”
She stopped in the aisle and twirled around with her arms outstretched. Heads turned in surprise, some eyebrows lifted in derision. Perhaps they thought she was tipsy on the brunch champagne or maybe a tad crazy. She swayed back and forth and included the room with her arms as she sang,
“…and I think to myself what a wonderful world.”
The room seemed to relax. Maybe the aisle dancer had broken through conventional behavior to a broader, more human connection. The musicians smiled at her, and even the maitre’ d chuckled as she danced back to her seat, her face flushed and eyes sparkling.
She plopped down in the soft chair unapologetically, as if she heartily approved of her behavior. Her expression bore the satisfaction of discovery as if she had surprised herself. I got the feeling she didn’t do this kind of thing often because her table companions looked at her in astonishment, perhaps with a tinge of embarrassment as they glanced around at other patron’s reactions. From my table, I gazed at her with admiration. I felt her joie d vivre. I saw her courage.
I had witnessed this tiny woman’s “fuchkit” moment.
A fuchkit moment occurs when you decide you will not let the prevailing social norms of behavior domesticate you one second more.
Just to be clear. Fuchkit moments aren’t about dangerous subversive acts but rather a spontaneous unhinging from conventional thinking. That moment when you decide you aren’t going to let anybody (not nobody, not no-how) take away the expression of your heart. You stop caring what others think, and you just dance!
You simply must express the bubbling up of your soul. You have no idea what’s going to happen next. Or next. Something wild and playful and free comes out of you in an unplanned, spontaneous explosion.
Because I live and write in the world of creativity, I am interested in how we can harness that playful “fuchkit” energy in our creative work, especially after a fearful year of “droplets” and division.
We have all been a bit tight and bunged up lately. And it’s hard to be creatively playful and free in that restricted state.
The brain doesn’t have any room for creative play (or solutions, for that matter) in the state of fear and anxiety.
American culture seems to have always valued the serious. In a world that purports concern and conformity, play and fun have a bad rap.
In my opinion, being playful is a more enlightened state of being
than we are domesticated to consider.
When someone is playful, they have a relationship to possibility. Think of the phrase:
“Anything can happen!” It brings on a state of play that insists on being present. It commands you to be on the alert for that which delights and elevates yourself and others.
Expansive questions naturally come out of the energy of play, and the questions sound like: “Why not?” and “What if?” and “What’s possible?” When you are under the umbrella of play, it’s impossible to ask what’s wrong, why something won’t work, or who is judging you.
Play asks you to trust yourself and releases self-consciousness. It nudges you to let go of the outcome. It insists that you not take yourself too seriously.
Playing is about pleasure, connection, imagination — all the juicy parts we love about life. Play is the pleasure of being inventive, mischievous, and trying something new.
And these qualities MATTER in creativity.
My friend Nina Lockwood (who hosts an enlightening podcast called Creativity Conversations) and I have had several art “playdates” on zoom. One of us puts on music, and we just do some kind of art-making of our own, yet still hanging out together. Invariably, one of us says when we begin, “I don’t know what I’m going to make,” but then, after making a stroke or two on a piece of paper, the game is on! We are off. She is a transformational coach and collage artist. She understands the energy of possibility. We chatter a bit during our hour or so and occasionally hold up our work to the computer to show each other. It is a pleasure to have a grown-up playdate, even from 2000 miles away and behind screens.
Collage artists work in the energy of play and being receptive to possibility. The “fuchkit” attitude collage artists share: “If it doesn’t work here, I can always cut it up and add it to something else.” Collage teaches you that anything you find or make will work somewhere, even if it is not on this one.
Collage artists wander junkyards and hardware stores with that casual “What will we find today?” attitude. They take a walk out in nature and accidentally find a rock, stick, or bone that will fit in the piece with which they are working. They see something in a new light that might help them further explore an emerging theme in their work.
Some things are just an experiment; some are a dump; some to be used for later. Collage artists collect inspiration and paint with an easy, playful approach. They don’t know what they are going to find until they have started. They don’t care what others think because everything they are assembling is unique. They have become adept at unhooking from convention in their making of art, which furthers its originality.
This “collagey” approach seems to be an antidote to perfectionism—that nemesis of every creative soul alive.
All types of art could benefit from this fluid and playful approach, from writing to composing, from abstract art to watercolors of birds.
And as my brunch aisle-dancer showed me, a playful “fuchkit” also infuses life with a whole lot more joy.
You can also read this post on Medium.