We Embrace

I ask
I try
To see a reason
I kneel
I bow
To your fragrant body
Your warmth envelopes me
Enraptures me
Like the sea you caress me
I hope
I yield
I release all I hold dear
I am born anew
From darkness
Into light
We embrace
The velvet night

Joe Battle 4/23/2012

Two of my favorite childhood activities

Two of my Favorite Childhood Activities

1. Building with crush proof boxes my Dad brought home when he returned from a months long cargo run at sea.

2. Rowing my boat around the lake in New Jersey I vacationed on every summer.

My dad was a merchant seaman. He'd be gone for months at a time. In those days he'd smoke cigarettes which came in crush proof boxes. He use to save the boxes and on his return give me quite a collection. He never stayed home long, only a few days, then he'd return to sea to support his family.

I played for days building bridges, buildings, and whatever else my young mind could invent. This activity was innately purposeless and completely voluntary. It had an inherent attraction based on a blending of the natural Lego style of building and it's connection with my dad.  During those periods of building I experienced a timeless time, free of any other distractions. Hours passes without my knowing. I was completely absorbed in those moments of play, and felt close to my dad who was away. I lost consciousness of myself as a separate individual being absorbed in my creative act. I improvised from moment to moment visualizing real structures into existence, past the truth of simple cigarette boxes. Finally I felt drawn to continue this activity over, and over, again because of the many satisfying personal rewards this experience gave me.

The Lake: I was an only child. I learned how to play by myself. I was never lonely. Just the opposite was true. A wondrous world lay waiting to be discovered without anyone else in between describing it to me in their voice. Every summer of my youth was spent at a lake in the mountains. I stayed with my Uncle and Grandmother in their home. It was a fanciful place because it was a traditional log cabin. It was built in that rustic style previously common in the mountains. It was made from whole logs smooth cut from mature trees. His home was on the point of the lake with water on three sides. Many times, in the early summer evenings, I'd row my small boat out onto the lake close to the cabin. My uncle loved to play piano at that time of day. I still remember how his playing drifted out over the water. I'd set the oars of my boat and listen to the water lap against it's hull combining with the jazz, or classical, melodies my uncle played. It set a certain lyrical mood to the end of the day which still lingers in my thoughts.

Alone, as the day ended and twilight overtook the sky, I was lost in the immediacy of those moments in a certain way which is no longer available to me as an adult. This was play done for it's own sake, for the experience of the moment. It was totally voluntary on my part. No one told me to be there. No conditions were framed around my acts. I was inherently, naturally, drawn to participate in this activity. I cannot describe why I was drawn to do this. I can only speak about the effect it had on me. This effect was truly one of a loss of self, unaware of the passage of time, of living purely in the present, free from any constraining framework, and free of schedule or commitment. One movement, one direction, was as likely to occur as any other. The combination of my uncle's structured melodies and my random rowing set a spontaneous, always flowing, pattern of experience, a pattern I always wished to repeat. A pattern which was never exactly the same.

I Play Two Childhood Activities, identifying and explaining the patterns of play involved.

One word. Lego. Yesterday my 9 year old son and I played together. Lego comes in theme sets. Using pieces from many different theme sets we built our own. Death Star blocks combined with Jungle Palm trees and thatched huts, while X-Wing fighter parts fit surprising well into Hobbit themed worlds. 

Overall the experience was one of focused fun. It was remarkably similar to my childhood building. Both materials divested themselves of their original purposed meaning finding new symbolic form in our spontaneous and unstructured journey. My childhood building took the form of classic solitary play. I was completely engrossed in playing. I was in my own world not often distracted by other's activities in the home. This time my son and I  engaged in associative play, interested in each other, we were involved in a strong social interaction while we played. We transitioned into cooperative play when organization became a strong part of our play, we had a goal, which was to create a shared vision, and we adopted roles acting as a team.

Later we rowed our canoe on the lake in front of our home. What a marvelous feeling to do with him what I'd done as a child. For a time I resisted the temptation to share my childhood experience and immersed myself in the moment with him. Many ducks swam close by waiting for any food we might have. After a while they wandered off leaving soft wakes behind. The evening sun began to strike brilliant colors in the sky reflected in the water. 

     I describe what if felt like to play my favorite childhood activity as an adult. 

As I rowed i was a Kinesthet, loving the movement of my body immersed in the rowing sport. 

Later, as I shared my early experience with my son, I became the Storyteller using my imagination to recreate that time from long ago and pull it forward into the present experience for us to share. The timelessness of true uninterrupted play became intuitively evident in those tranquil moments of rowing and storytelling.

Joe