February Read/2019/3

Title: Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul
Author: Brown, Stuart L.
Call Number: 155 B879P 2009
Book Description from amazon.com:
We've all seen the happiness on the face of a child while playing in the school yard. Or the blissful abandon of a golden retriever racing across a lawn. This is the joy of play. By definition, play is purposeless, all-consuming, and fun. But as Dr. Stuart Brown illustrates, play is anything but trivial. It is a biological drive as integral to our health as sleep or nutrition. We are designed by nature to flourish through play. 

Dr. Brown has spent his career studying animal behavior and conducting more than six-thousand "play histories" of humans from all walks of life-from serial murderers to Nobel Prize winners. Backed by the latest research, Play (20,000 copies in print) explains why play is essential to our social skills, adaptability, intelligence, creativity, ability to problem solve and more. Particularly in tough times, we need to play more than ever, as it's the very means by which we prepare for the unexpected, search out new solutions, and remain optimistic. A fascinating blend of cutting-edge neuroscience, biology, psychology, social science, and inspiring human stories of the transformative power of play, this book proves why play just might be the most important work we can ever do.
My Read:
Page 185--"The hand and the brain need each other--the hand provides the means for interacting with the world and the brain provides method. Neurologically, "a hand is always in search of a brain and a brain is in search of a hand.""
Page 200--"The advantage that countries like the United States, Britain,, France, Germany, Scandinavian nations, and Japan retain is the ability to invent--to dream up solutions to problems that people may not yet even know they have. Nations that remain economically stronger are those that can create intellectual property--and the ability to innovate largely comes out of an ability to play."
Page 201--"A successful life is one in which we are able to fulfill our own basic needs and give or ourselves to others. We are happy when we can live an expansive life, one in which we are aware that we are actively participating in something greater than ourselves-- a part of a loving couple, a friendship, a family, an intellectual, social, or spiritual community."
Page 205--"Making all of life an act of play occurs when we recognize and accept that there may be some discomfort in play, and that every experience has both pleasure and pain."
According to the author, play comes in different ways: i.e. music, sports, art, exercise etc.

Polar bear and Hudson, the husky play