I am cast in Hamlet, one of the Senior Theater Festival’s productions this year. When I got to rehearsal last night, my cast members  gathered, laughing and talking. We stretched, put our bags away, sipped our last sips of water, glanced over highlighted scripts. And then we naturally fell into a circle, expanding for each new member as they arrived.

Then? My favorite part of rehearsal began, a part I think is important.

“Let’s play a game.”

And we did—we pointed  finger guns at each other and squealed when someone was “Shot”. We let go of our inhibitions, and for a moment we forgot to be adults. We were just children—children in a room, pretending.

We forgot our papers and tests and the lines we hadn’t memorized yet and our friends in the outside world and the missed phone calls from our mothers, and we became fully immersed.

I believe in games. I think they are not only fun but very, very valuable.

People often don’t want to play once they reach adulthood, and that is a travesty.  Children play games because children understand the magic of them, the way that people are transformed by the chance to leap into engaging with one another.

We so rarely allow ourselves to just be with others, to do something silly. But silly is not frivolous—silly is necessary. Silly completes us.

So, on this sunny Thursday afternoon, I challenge you, Loggers, to play. Throw a Frisbee, or race, or play hide and seek.

You are adults, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t, today and every day,let yourself be totally free, just for a few moments.

Playing might surprise you.