“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

-Heraclitus 

Games need rules. There would be no game without the parameters of how to win and what to do and not do. It’s not fun without boundaries, and in most games having fun requires effort and focus. In a good game the two seemingly opposing forces of work and play harmonize with each other. 

Should our days be filled with play or work and what defines the two? On the surface, it seems an easy answer. Some may even equate free time with play, yet all around me, people are choosing work instead, checking emails at the beach, tidying the house when they have downtime, handling bills, or managing finances when the hours wind down at the end of the day.

If we fill our free time with toil, what does that say about our ability to have fun and our outlook on life generally? Are we really valuing our time if we spend our free hours washing clothes or sending emails?  Why is wasting time perceived as a mistake when it seems that this is all we are doing? When I write, why do I feel most of my sentences end up as questions? 

If you scrape the surface of something you begin to approach its significance. We know that fights between people are about something deeper than the objects they fight about. There’s usually some fucked up family issue or some other problem that isn’t about the person with whom we’re fighting. 

If observed, the seriousness of life can point you in the direction of a light-hearted freedom. Our quest for focus and measured success in our lives may actually be defined by our enjoyment in what we consider work. Work is play and play is work, one without the other really doesn’t work.