Work hard, Play hard, or....

Play. 

Play versus not knowing any better- what is play to a kid, learning, stimulation? What is work to an adult? Work is stimulating, well, ideal work would be stimulating anyway. People are going to school for? The act of learning? Expectation to receive a degree? To eventually get a job in a career field they enjoy? I think the latter is the correct sounding one, however immediately following high school one does not necessarily choose to continue school and pay for it unless there is some bigger reason behind it. I do believe that some people at 18 or 19 would choose to continue schooling and I also believe those people are the same driven to work in a highly refined field, doctors, engineers, mathematicians. Why? Is school work now play to them? Are they so stimulated by what knowledge provides that it has now transitioned from work as one person might see it to play as they see it? After all, wouldn't the definition of either work or play, which are typically represented as opposite as good and evil, be synonymous with the person experiencing them, and therefore not universally assumed terms? 

Again, the question remains as to play versus work, or how to find a balance between the two, or if there is even a line anymore. 

"All work and no play makes Jerry a dull boy." What is work for Jerry? What is dull? Whose opinion is this? Am I supposed to agree with this? Is this little nursery rhyme a universal truth I missed? Am I to feel that my work cannot be play or that I am supposed to play? And if I play, am I supposed to play like all the other kids? If I choose to read or write, which many might consider work, then am I a dull boy?

More questions than answers, but it really gets to the foundation of belief. Core beliefs that is, not necessary spiritual, though many core beliefs are based in the realm of the spiritual. What I am considering to be as play would be work to someone else, however it isn't the "play" many in my environment consider to be so. So then, at what point do I have to retrain myself that my expectations in life are not the same as I see in my community? The assumption exists that we all want to be part of the community, however, if for some reason, one were to have a different value system based on a previous environment or in developing a liking to something else are they to feel like an outsider, or at least have to feel a sense of compensation to being different? 

Work (as indicated by the sweater and
fake plant in background)

If the Nebraska football game is on and instead of watching this for 3 hours I decide to read because I like to read, but yet I know that people close by, neighbors, social media friends for which we are always connected now, then I am to accept my play and your play when you might consider your play your play and my play work? If that were the case and if work and play agreed upon by the masses, let's say a survey of what is work and what is play, then I would have to compensate for your beliefs by overcoming the rigid definitions of play and work while you would not have to. This is for my own benefit of course because I am the one choosing to do something considered different. Considered different by who? The masses I guess. Who are the masses specifically? The majority of people in my proximity (both distance and social network). Well then, why would I feel the need to have to "overcome" what the environment is telling me, did I not choose my environment?

Ahh, there it is. I chose my environment based on who I was at the time. I chose to be something I clearly was not. I choose what was comfortable and fit an agenda of what I thought people wanted. Physically, I am a larger-sized man and therefore it was always easier to be something others expected than it was to be myself. Myself likes to read and work on things, alone. I get a rush off of a project unlike watching football. I get excitement for a new book, unlike drinking. This is no better or no worse than anyone else preferences, it just is. The problem here is that I fit what I thought others expected of me for so long that my environment  (again both social and proximal) fit what that agenda was and even my internal expectation of what was expected of me. I put my tree roots in a flower pot and then formed to meet the limits of the environment. essentially right idea, wrong environment.

So, now I have to alter what I believe to be accepted as work and play, for I have seen mine as different. This is again no better or no worse, it just is. I might not get the same rush off of a social media viewing, though I come across stuff that is exciting, rather than reading a book. I might not enjoy a social gathering because I do not see the point when that same amount of time and inevitably less resources and (less alcohol) can be invested in learning or what others might consider work. For me, many social gathers are more work than they are play. This is my perspective of course and one that is unique to me. I can however engage when I am intrigued. When I hear something worth of value or someone with an interesting perspective or insight or expertise on a subject. I am always curious when something I vaguely know anything about is well known by someone else. Many times I will meet a man whom I overheard say something I overheard on the news and without the typical pleasantries and getting to know him, I simply want to know what he knows. Pick up more of what he's got. If the talk goes to either these superficial niceties, then interest is lost. If the man's presentation becomes arrogant, then again this is now a show rather than a tell. If he describes what I was looking for, now I am hooked. Unfortunately, my bias is always skeptical because I have been tainted by others wanting something, either advice, admiration, or too much drink involved and just to talk to someone, for which a wall would suffice. 

Play is the opposite or absence of work, but what is work? In math W=Force x Distance.
But she forces me out of the house and we go far. So is it work or play? 

Again, the perspectives have to change based on environment about what a person can get from it to make the occasion either a playful or a work one. To some however, work is better than play, or work is play. For me, I have found that the absence of work can be a pretty low stimulating environment and therefore no challenges to continue to drive further thought processes and therefore less stimulating and more work than without.

Is your work play? Is play more work for you than others? Just a thought.