Ah, but when was the last time you truly let yourself go—wholly, unapologetically, gloriously yourself? Not the polished, presentable version you parade before the world, but that inner child who once laughed without permission and danced without music. I confess, for me, it was a long time ago, at one of those parties where the air is thick with the stale scent of adult concerns. The conversation meandered grimly from one sorrow to the next: sickness and scandal, the frailty of economies, the looming shadows of war and death, and the general conclusion that the world was teetering on the edge of some vast abyss.
And just when it seemed we might collectively dissolve into a puddle of solemnity, an old man—white-haired and wonderfully unbothered—rose from his chair, lifted his glass, and cried out, “Play time!”
Play time.
It was not merely a declaration but an invocation. At first, of course, the room recoiled. Whispers rustled like dry leaves—“Has he lost his senses?” “Is he drunk?” “Senility, perhaps.” You see, it is a dangerous thing in modern society to be unguardedly joyful. We have come to equate gravity with wisdom, and frolic with foolishness. But I tell you, there was more wisdom in that man’s outburst than in all our gloomy prognostications combined.
For there is something divine in the impulse to play—something that connects us to the wild joy of being alive, to the eternal laughter at the heart of the cosmos. It is the mad, inexplicable gladness that reminds us we are not machines grinding through productivity charts, nor merely minds churning through data and doubt. We are souls—souls made for wonder, mischief, and glad-hearted delight.
Too many, I fear, have forgotten the value of a little holy madness.
So let us ask ourselves—not with guilt, but with a wistful sort of hope—when was the last time we allowed joy to take the reins? When did we last leap before looking, sing before speaking, or dance when no one else heard the tune? And if it has indeed been too long, then perhaps, like that old man, it is time to stand and declare, without shame or irony, “Play time!” again.
