Playgrounds for All
On the critical importance of goofing off in public.
(Expected reading time: 6-8 minutes.)
Dear Brilliant Reader,
This is Patterns for Thriving, where we explore the recurring patterns of community that can help us survive and thrive in these trying times. I’m Michael, your genial and extremely handsome host.
If you are new here, welcome! And for those who have been here for a minute, thanks so much for sticking around. 🥳
Just in case you aren’t already subscribed, you can take care of that piece of business here:
A reminder to all that Patterns for Thriving is inspired by, and connected to, A Pattern Language, better known as your favorite community organizer’s favorite doorstop. (Lots of smart people own it, but have never cracked it open. We’re here to change that!)
This essay from the earliest days of our little project will help get familiar with A Pattern Language. You can also access all of the original patterns online for free.
In Patterns for Thriving, we intend to discover 50 new patterns, as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the original book. The original patterns are numbered 1 to 253. In honor of the 50th, our new patterns are numbered 501 to 550. We are publishing them “out of order”, meaning you will experience them in a way similar to how we are meant to experience the original book, following trains of thought as well as flights of fancy.
Now, let’s get to this week’s pattern.
537. Playgrounds for All
. . . The importance of play for children is well-established. Connected Play (68) and Adventure Playground (73) speak to the need to create such spaces for children. Teenagers and adults need play spaces, too. Local Sports (72) serve as a good start. But the need for play in all ages of life is easily overlooked or dismissed within a community.
Unstructured play is important for all of us, but is not easy for teenagers and adults to access.
Play as a part of everyday life has succumbed to the pressures of security and surveillance, as well as neighborhood designs and cultures that are hostile to kids roaming around. Playgrounds have become increasingly boring, because of lawsuits over playground safety, which are only necessary because of gaps in our healthcare system.
At the same time, youth activities have become more and more professionalized. There is no time for play when you need to build your college resume. This relentless pressure to achieve feeds into a sense, for both kids and adults, that physical activity needs to be competitive. By the time we reach adulthood, it is easy to associate pretty much all physical activity with competition, whether we are playing a sport against others, or striving for our own personal best times or distances in our relentlessly measured lives.
Yet we also know that in a Postmodern world full of complex work, our capacity for creative problem solving depends on our ability to spark truly new ideas within ourselves and each other. Writer Kevin Kelly observes:
“Efficiency is highly overrated; Goofing off is highly underrated. Regularly scheduled sabbaths, sabbaticals, vacations, breaks, aimless walks and time off are essential for top performance of any kind. The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic.”
Play is an essential part of rest. Our bodies are meant to move, without a specific purpose other than enjoying ourselves. All of us need to experience the joy of laying in the grass, in pumping our legs on the swingset, in climbing a play structure. Within the limits of our physical abilities, we are meant to have fun.
Play is also an important policy choice. Most adults, for their part, don’t feel like they have the time or space in their lives to goof off. Economic precarity makes leisure feel like a waste of time and money. And when our governments are investing vast amounts of money, but we don’t literally enjoy the benefits, we become skeptical and distrusting of those investments.
A recent essay by Kate Aronoff in The New Republic called “The Case for Pool Party Progressivism” reports on how leisure and recreation for all citizens was a top priority in the Depression-era New Deal in the US:
“[The New Deal] built a hell of a lot of places for people to have fun. The Civil Works Administration constructed 2,000 playgrounds and 4,000 athletic fields; the National Youth Administration built, repaired, or improved more than 9,000 tennis courts; the Civilian Conservation Corps mounted 2,500 cabins in state and national parks and forests.
We need to play - for our own well-being, for the creative benefits to society, and for staying in right relationship with democracy.
Therefore:
Let every community create unstructured and noncompetitive play spaces, with indoor and outdoor options, for people of all ages and physical abilities. Let these spaces encourage hanging out, goofing off, and exploration through physicality. Weave these spaces into the fabric of the community, so they are easy to access, and so their use by some members of the community will serve as a reminder and an invitation to others.
+++
A Clubhouse (531 - to be published) can serve as a wonderful play space, if one is available to the community at large. For outdoor play spaces, Access to Water (25) and Sleeping in Public (94) are important to include. Play spaces can easily contribute to Night Life (33), and a strong network of play spaces friendly to older kids can help bolster Teenage Society (84). Invite the participation and enjoyment of onlookers at play spaces, and those who need a moment of rest, with Stair Seats (125). . . .
Next time in Patterns for Thriving: Why it’s so important to partner and collaborate in this work.
In parallel with this project, I’m writing and producing a community radio show. Postcards from Jubilee Station (Spotify) (Apple) uses these patterns to offer a story-based meditation practice. What does it feel like when we decide to be generous with each other - and with our entire town, state, and country?
In recent episodes, we’ve celebrated a town-wide Alumni Weekend, and visited The Everyone Playground in town. Worlds collide! Hope to see you over there.
Yours in swinging my beat, Michael