“Authentic play comes from deep down inside us. It’s not formed or motivated solely by others. Real play interacts with and invokes the outside world but fundamentally expresses the needs and desires of the player. It emerges from the imaginative force within. That’s part of the adaptive power of play; with a pinch of pleasure, it integrates our deep physiological, emotional, and cognitive capacities. And quite without knowing it, we grow. We harmonize the influences within us. Where we may have felt pulled in one direction by the heart and another direction by the head, play can allow us to find a balanced course or a third way. All the evidence indicates that the greatest rewards of play come when it arises naturally from within. Page 105
“The recognition of personal improvement, not stardom, is the gauge for mutual respect.” P116
from the book Play by Stuart Brown