Let Us Play

"Work to live or live to work" – no doubt, you’ve heard that before. Here’s another well-worn cliché: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

There’s plenty of truth in both those statements. You really can’t enjoy life, at least not fully, if all you do is work. Unfortunately, for too many of us we have to work more than we want. It’s tough making a living and it’s hard to make enough money to pay the bills. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.

There are times when it is crunch time with work. If you have a project with a deadline then you’ve got to get it done or suffer the consequences. The key is good planning, discipline and also knowing when to say, “enough is enough”. The last thing any of us needs to do is drop dead from the stress of working too much.

All that being said, perhaps you have been faced with an incredible load lately. Probably you have good days when a lot has been accomplished and also those days when you just want to throw your hands in the air.

This might make you think, I don’t want to work all the time.

At the same time, maybe you enjoy work when it is something you find worthwhile. That is the key, isn’t it? If you can’t do work you love then it just becomes drudgery.

Whether or not you have a job you love you can always make time to play. I’ve been reflecting on the games and playtime I enjoy. I have a couple of kids and also two grandchildren. Some of the times we all remember as the best are when we do something fun together. Sometimes we play board games. Other times we go out – to the park, a ball game or a concert. It sure beats just sitting in front of the television.

One of the games we really enjoy as a family is the card game Canasta. Many of our friends and our other relatives jump at a chance to play it when we get together. The game is a lot like gin rummy, but it has a few different nuances. Without explaining all the rules, the goal is each round to get as many canastas as you can, which is 7 of a kind. Every round starts out with all the players getting dealt eleven or thirteen cards, depending on whether we are playing with two teams or three. In addition to the cards we get the deuces (two's) and jokers are wild. You need a certain amount of "points" to meld and that goes up as the scores reach various levels.

You have to draw two cards each time it is your turn, or pick the pile. But there are rules to how that takes place. If a player "freezes" the pile with a wild it gets, well, wilder!

As I try to explain it here I realize it’s might be hard to follow. Don’t sweat it. The point I’m making is that we love to play this game. It even gets pretty competitive and we’ve played this game for years. I think part of the fun is that we’ve enjoyed this game for so long and it’s a great excuse to get together and socialize.

Have some fun in your life.

Make the most of work, but more importantly, make the most of living and that means finding a good balance between work and play.

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