The serious business of play

Rev. Marisol Caballero
September 1, 2013

So often we dismiss saccharine statements made by those who teach children as trite, “I learn just as much from them as they learn from me!” But, there is a sacred science behind it. The insights and discoveries of children and teens lend us a glimpse into ways of engaging with our universe and each other that the average adult brain no longer accesses on our own! Join us in exploring the spiritual practice of learning with, from and teaching children.

Call to Worship
By Carol Meyer

We are people of all ages who enter this space bringing our joys and our concerns.

We come together in hope.

We greet each other warmly with our voices and our smiles.

We come together in peace.

We light the chalice to symbolize our interdependence and our unity.

We come together in harmony.

We share our growth and our aspirations.

We come together in wonder.

We share our losses and our disappointments.

We come together in sorrow.

We share our concern and our compassion.

We come together in love.

We come to this place bringing our doubts and our faith.

We come together as seekers.

We sing and pray and listen. We speak and read and dream. We think and ponder and reflect We cry and laugh and center. We mourn and celebrate and meditate. We strive for justice and for mercy.

We come together in worship.

Reading
excerpt from “The Courage to Teach” by Parker Palmer

Erik Erikson, reflecting on adult development, says that in midlife, we face a choice between “stagnation” and “generativity.” … On one hand (generativity] suggests creativity, the ongoing possibility that no matter our age, we can help co-create the world. On the other hand, it suggests the endless emergence ofthe generations, with its implied imperative that the elders look back toward the young and help them find a future that the elders will not see. Put these two images together, and generativity becomes “creativity in the service of the young” – in a way in which the elders serve not only the young but also their own well-being.

In the face of apparent judgment of the young, teachers must turn toward students, not away from them, saying, in effect, “There are great gaps between us. But no matter how wide and perilous they may be, I am committed to bridging them- not only because you need me to help you on your way but also because I need your insight and energy to help renew my own life.”

… Good teaching is an act of hospitality toward the young, and hospitality is always an act that benefits the host even more than the guest. The concept of hospitality arose in ancient times when this reciprocity was easier to see: in nomadic cultures, the food and shelter one gave to a stranger yesterday is the food and shelter one hopes to receive from a stranger tomorrow. By offering hospitality, one participates in the endless reweaving of a social fabric on which all can depend- thus the gift of sustenance for the guest becomes a gift of hope for the host. It is that way in teaching as well: the teacher’s hospitality to the student results in a world more hospitable to the teacher.

Prayer/Meditation
Marta M. Flanagan

God of all generations, in all the power, mystery and design of this world, draw us near, inspire us to see anew the life before us. Make us like the child who sees so clearly and touches so deeply.

From the source of our being, we yearn for new vision, new eyes to see the world, new ears to hear the cries of sorrow and of joy. Uplift us to the glories beheld in ourselves and in those around us. And yes, open our hearts to the pain we guard within ourselves and to the pain known by the hungry in body and in spirit.

In this moment of life, sustain us in the silence of our own thoughts and prayers …

Peace be to this congregation. Amen.

Sermon
“The Serious Business of Play”
Rev. Marisol Caballero

I always tell people that I have the best gig. I spent so many years working with kids in various settings and, as much as I knew, with my whole heart, that ministry was the vocation to which my soul called me, I knew that, once ordained and gainfully employed, I would surely miss getting to spend time with kids. After all, kids are some ofthe coolest people I know. Annie, one of our resident preschool theologians, is known to ask questions such as, “Why does everyone have a body?” and “Do I have to be a person?” But, in this gig here at First UU, I have been handed a living in which I get the opportunity to do ministry in the traditional sense- to meet interesting people and walk with them a ways through life, to prepare and give sermons from time-to-time, to plan programming, to facilitate adult spiritual learning experiences- and I’m also given the privilege of doing the sort of ministry that I have been spending most of my life engaging in- I am given the opportunity to learn from and with children.

Last spring, I stepped in as lead Sunday school teacher when one of our volunteers couldn’t make it at the last minute. I was working with a group of seven and eight year olds and the lesson was about varying ideas about God. We read a beautifully illustrated storybook that talked about how people view God differently and fmd God in many places. Afterward, we took out some crayons, markers, and blank construction paper. We emphasized how there is no right or wrong way in understanding God and it’s ok if everyone has a different picture or if everyone drew the same thing. The only instruction was to draw God. In the next few minutes, I saw a picture of a big tree, a picture of a forest trail, a big, bright yellow sun, an old man with a beard, a rainbow, and a kitty cat. Without having studied the complexities of quantum physics, these kids had explained it to me with crayons. We are all made up of the same stuff as everything else in the universe. Without spelling it out, they had linked their playful curiosities and uninhibited wonder to our lofty Unitarian Universalist principles. Divinity exists in all.

Still discovering the world around them, everything is still awesome, in the true sense of the word. Does the world become less awesome as we learn about it all, or do we lose sight of our sense of wonder as we age? Is it a bit of both?

Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology and philosophy at UC Berkeley, says that the brains of babies and young children operate similarly to the “brains of the most brilliant scientists,” the “most powerful learning computers on the planet” by design. She says that instead of looking at babies and children as defective, adults-in-training, we should think of them as at “a different developmental stage of our same species.” That statement is blowing your minds, right? Well, of course, we all know that babies and children are human and that they are not at the same developmental stage as a master carpenter or neurosurgeon, but Gopnik goes on to using the analogy of a caterpillar and butterfly. But, guess who she says is the caterpillar and which is the butterfly? Children, whose evolutionary job is to learn, are flitting all around the garden, exploring and tasting each plant and flying seemingly without purpose, while us adults are more concerned with keeping our heads down and completing the task at hand so that we can eat it and then check that enormous leaf off of our to-do list. Now, on to the next one.

My favorite memory of the past week (which I’m sure will, over time, tum into one of my favorite memories of this past life, if I can take it with me wherever I am bound) was when my lady and I were shopping in HEB and she suddenly started to slyly shove me sideways until I was pinned to the shelves.

I had no explanation for why, aside from the possibility that she’d lost her mind. I struggled & couldn’t get away & so, giggling until I couldn’t breathe and red in the face with embarrassment as passers-by grinned at me in solidarity, she let me go as if nothing had happened. She did this several more times. In-between pinnings, we ran into a member of this church and our downstairs neighbor! Play, the most inexpensive fun there is, deeply connects us to one another.

For those who will better value concepts like “play” if a learned scholar has attached research to it (myself included, if I’m honest), Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play the guy whose initial research with convicted murderers demonstrated that a common theme in their lives had been a sad deficiency in play during childhood. Brown tells us that, “the opposite of play isn’t work, its depression,” that play is not simply rehearsal for adult activity, but has merit for its own sake. It is “its own biological entity.” Play is a huge source of our fulfilling one of our basic spiritual needs- yes, we all have basic spiritual needs, just as we have basic physical ones, such as food, water shelter- play actually strengthens our feelings of connectedness to each other. Brown says that, “the basis of human trust is established through play.” He says that we understand the “play signals” that others give us, verbally and physically” as children and “we begin to lose those signals, culturally and otherwise, as adults and that’s a shame.”

Children learn by “getting into everything,” otherwise known as playing. Gopnik had another great metaphor for the difference in the way that children and adults learn to explain how play is never “just” about having fun for children. I adore this metaphor. She explains how the typical adult brain functions like a spotlight. We pay focus our attention on one thing or task at a time, or try to anyhow, and value the ability to do so. We count ourselves as “on a roll” or “in the zone” and spend hours attempting to meditate on a singular object or thought, or try to clear our minds, completely.

Children’s minds, however, are more like lanterns, as they are not very skilled at focusing on one thing at a time but great at noticing everything around them at once. It isn’t that they are not paying attention to you, it’s that kids are paying attention to you and everything else, as well.

In order to reconnect ours minds once more with the ability to experience awe and wonder, to be open to innovation, creativity, and to allow our imaginations to view concepts in completely new ways, we may engage in playful learning with kids.

We talk about playas ifit’s a waste of time. We say things like, ‘Just having fun,” as if fun can’t be an important soul-nourishing goal on its own, as if enjoying life and taking a few moments to be silly wastes time and prevents us from doing important things- like working and making money, so that we can better enjoy life … We need not have either/or. Work and play are important. And, I am not speaking ofthe way I typically think of “work hard, play hard.” I don’t mean work, work, work, take a vacation to Africa that you’ve been planning and scrimping for over a year. I’m referring to the little silly games we play to make others smile, the digging in the sand simply for the sake of re-exploring how it feels running between fingers, spontaneously chasing your pet until they are sure you’ve lost your mind… I’m advocating for real play!

Lucky for us, we have a growing number of resident experts on the seriously crucial spiritual practice of play right here in this congregation! Most of them are rapidly growing taller than me, right before our eyes! First UU of Austin operates a loving and thriving cooperative Children and Youth Religious Education program, which means that parents of enrolled children are required to give at least eight hours of their time to the program per year. One of the many ways to do this is by interacting (also known as “playing”) with our kids during Sunday School and Youth Group meetings; learning alongside them, through their wisdom and insight and their illuminating lantern-minds, as they encounter fun ways of exploring their world, their thoughts, their relationships, and their understanding of Unitarian Universalism.

This opportunity is not reserved only for parents, and not all parents are the sort that do well in the classroom. If you are interested in engaging in teaching and being taught by our children and teens, in being transformed, in connecting with other members of this fascinating species of ours across the generations, in understanding Unitarian Universalism and science and mysticism and yourself and the ways that all of that is the same thing- in ways that you never imagined, consider becoming a volunteer teacher. It isn’t as scary as it may sound. It isn’t like I’m saying, “consider becoming a yogi or a guru if you’ve never practiced yoga or meditation.” And, not all Sundays with children and teens are magical. Some are tough. But, like any other sacred spiritual practice, religious education and exploration with our youngest UU elders requires a humble yet courageous spirit and an open heart.

It’s holy work. It’s ministry, in the truest sense of the word. It’s a hospitality, as Parker says, “that benefits the host even more than the guest.” One of my favorite lines in Maria Harris’ Fashion Me a People: Curriculum in the Church, one of those classics that we all have to read in seminary is, ”whether in church or beyond, teaching itself is a fundamentally religious activity in the sense that it is always, at root, in the direction of deepest meaning, ultimate origin, and fmal destiny … if teachers would take off their shoes on each teaching occasion in the conviction that they are on holy ground, they could envision this truth more easily.”

While it would be awesome if all this whole congregation, upon hearing this sermon, leapt up from the pews and ran to the lifespan RE table in the gallery to sign up for classroom time, that is an unrealistic expectation on my part. What I do hope, though, is that a critical mass of you does just that, but that all of us remember to daily remember to play, to (whether figuratively or literally) take off our shoes, realizing that, in doing so, we are on holy ground. My prayer is that we remember that, through the very serious business of silly, seemingly meaningless play, we are engaging in the very essence of what it means to be living members of this vast universe.

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them here.

http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/first-unitarian-universalist/id372427776