Learning to play

The concept of learning itself comes from the idea of playing. The first words we learn, the first time we ride our cycles, the first time you hold a bat. There is something very basic and essential in that "first time". We are eager to pick up and explore the tools at our disposal, only for the fun of it. There is no sense of purpose, achievement or competition to motivate and propel you forwards. That basic "first time" instinct though is lost on us as we age.

A few of the first times happened a little late for me, the first time I ever rode a bike was just a couple of years ago. It wasn't a sense of achievement, "yaay I can ride a bike now" or an inflated ego boost that got me going to learn then. I was afraid at first, to fall down, to go into traffic and not being able to move, but at some point my curiosity got the better of me. I was not flying through the wind, but I was definitely moving. In all this mind you, I never fell down once, albeit I only traveled in the safety of my neighborhood and not in the wild country or the mean highways.  The feeling of the first time, the quaint exhilaration and the magical bliss, can propel into an euphoric trance.

Whats the point of that anecdote you might ask? The point is this, you need to take the plunge sometimes in the depths of the unknown not knowing what the rewards are, make a leap of faith and hope to land on your feet. It is not always possible and you might land on your head, this should not deter your ability to take risks, explore and learn to play. Sometimes, infact most of the times, its quite alright to make a fool of yourself. The reason I am writing about this is primarily to remind myself to explore the craziness in the world around me.

In the words of my friend's email signature -  

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain