This month’s spiritual challenge is on the theme of FUN.

There’s more than one way to have fun. Just as people have different senses of humor, people have also different style of play. What’s fun to you, may be boring or even scary to someone else.  So, my spiritual challenge to you this month is to find your PLAY TYPE and practice catering your fun time and recreation around it.

A 2020 New York Times article about how adults can add more play to their lives, referenced a study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences that identified four play personality types:  other-directed, lighthearted, intellectual, and whimsical. “Other-directed play is when you enjoy playing with other people. Lighthearted play generally means you don’t take life too seriously, and you like to improvise. Intellectual play has to do with ideas and thoughts, like wordplay and problem-solving. And whimsical players like doing odd or unusual things in everyday life.” 

AND as a follow up

In his book Play, Stuart Brown suggests there are 8 main types of playfulness among adults. His play types include:

• The Joker (the classic class-clown.
• The Kinesthetic (body movement, athletics),
• The Explorer (loves learning and learning games),
• The Competitor (loves measuring physical and intellectual skills against others), T
• he Director (enjoys organizing and managing, think the D&D dungeon master),
• The Collector (gathers valuable objects and experiences),
• The Storyteller (finds conversation and storytelling playful),
• The Creator (has fun making things, art, crafts, gardening, etc.)  

There’s an online quiz for these 8 types here: https://lindsaybraman.com/adult-play-styles/#quiz  and a nice online article about these 8 types here: https://www.earlychildhoodspecialties.com/blog/adults-need-play-too

Which of these play styles are yours? Do you have more than one? Find something you can do to have fun this month that plays to your strengths (see what I did there?).

The Reverend Tony Lorenzen

(he/him/his)