As most of you know, I work for a school district and one of my main responsibilities is the maintenance and safety of playground equipment.  Now the state of California has set standards for the type of play that children should participate in.  Many exhaustive studies and research models were done on the benefits of play and the many conquences of not playing.  Studies have defined not playing in the same scenario as REM (rapid eye movement).  The lack of REM may cause excessive or inappropriate aggression (we all know who needs more sleep in that case!!), causes diminished capacity for socialization, and may increase depression and health patterns.  They have found that lack of play could have the same effects.  Experiences of game-playing with multiple roles playing winning and losing predict good adult communal cooperative behavior.  The consequences of play deprivation are extensive and profound. 

      Now the reasons for all this information to you is that you need to play sometimes!  I am not recommending that you go to the park and swing on the swings and jump a rope.  But rather at our age play is defined in the activities that we partake in.  I would suggest that the GWRRA chapter offers that opportunity to play.  The lunch and dinner rides, the visiting of other chapters, the joining in at events, are all part of playing, playing the adult way.  This adult playing is an important part in your stressful life now as it was when you were a child.  Here is a quote from one study for play directed to students and teachers.  I say it applies to all of us:

PLAY:

• Play has magic powers.
• Play helps the young grow up
• Play helps the old stay young.
• Play transforms strangers into best friends
• Play teases participation out of shyness
• Play defeats boredom and isolation with fun and fellowship
• Play trumps worry with frolic
• Play cleverly disguises learning as laughter