I recently went mountain biking with a friend of mine who is an avid cyclist, and has been taking me out and teaching me how to mountain bike. It’s been a blast, and a wonderful learning experience. There’s all of the intrigue and joy of learning something new, and satisfaction of progressing and getting better at it, but the thing that strikes me the most is the absolute joyful abandon that my friend brings when she’s cycling. 

She has always referred to riding as ‘playing on bikes,’ which I found really interesting. It’s rare to meet an adult who describes anything they do as ‘play’ (even when it is something that fills that role in their life). It has gotten me thinking about the idea of play and how she approaches it, and how we approach it culturally. 

Mountain biking with her has let me glimpse this playful, joyful, inquisitive side of her that is as natural and essential to her life as breathing. She is extremely self aware  about her need for play, and prioritizes it in her life. It’s a healthy attitude, and something that culturally I feel we’ve lost. My friend never ‘works out,’ but goes and ‘plays.’ That’s how she thinks of it, and why it’s motivating and sustainable for her. That’s a key fact we’ve forgotten in our modern age; ‘fitness’ is something we aspire to, but it’s become work. The ‘why’ has become ‘because we should’ rather than ‘because it’s enjoyable and healthy.’ Play is self sustaining because the goal is to continue playing and doing, rather than simply getting something unpleasant but necessary over with. 

Treating an activity as play also keeps it free of expectations, and I think that’s a positive thing. Not that a certain amount of risk or focused goals aren’t good, but you can’t lose sight of your joy while on the path to a goal. Freedom from expectations allows more exploration, more growth, and room to mess up without consequences, which is essential to learning. 

I can’t mountain bike with my friend without being infected with her joyous attitude. Play is the gift that keeps on giving, and the joy is in the doing.