One of my favorite sayings is, "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation."-Plato
Children (and adults) create from what they have experienced. Play is the language that expresses stories and experiences. Toys and games are the tools used to express this language.
For me, taking toys and observing the children of St. Mary Kevin play
will be equivalent to listening to the intimate and detailed stories of
these children's lives. Stories that often can not be told because of
the lack of verbal language, or intense emotion that the events carry.
Often times the hurts and pains that children have suffered can be more
manageably shared through the safety of play rather than by talking.
I am honored, excited and immensely curious to see the play of the
children and discover how others can offer support and education to
mitigate the pains they have endured. I have spent 11 years learning
the language of play through some fabulous children at Operation
Breakthrough (and 9 years learning it from my beautiful girls!). This
trip is an amazing opportunity to take what the children of OB have
taught me and share it with the staff and children in Uganda. To me
this is an amazing exchange.
1 comment:
Considering Gloria's comment of the previous post ("Given my competitive nature (come on over for a friendly? game of ping pong, scrabble, boggle or poker sometime)..."), the Plato quote about play versus conversation proves even more insightful. :)
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