This may blow your mind, but it’s impossible to “play it safe.” We can try to “keep it safe,” but the minute we start talking about play, it has to involve risk because the original word for “play” meant “to risk, chance, or expose oneself to hazard.” In fact, author Diane Ackerman dove even deeper into the original meaning in her book, Deep Play, when she wrote that “play’s original purpose was to make a pledge to someone or something by risking one’s life.”
Clearly, the meaning of the word “play” has evolved, and I’m glad that recess no longer has to include dying, but I think we’ve lost something if we’ve forgotten that playing does include risking.
This is a foreign concept to our participation trophy culture, but the point of playing isn’t just to have fun and not keep score; there is also an element of pushing ourselves to the limit in hopes of victory. Of course, this also means that we have to risk the agony of defeat, as well, and I would suggest that’s the biggest reason why the modern era has worked so hard to find a way to play without having to risk feeling the sting of loss.
