Meaningful Returns

Andrea Pirlo had this to say about Major League Soccer (the American professional soccer league) yesterday:

“It’s a very hard league to play in. It’s very physical, there’s a lot of running. So there is a lot of physical work and to me, in my mind, too little play. What I’m talking about is actually a system or culture. I don’t mean that the level of technical skills are low. I just mean there is a cultural void that needs to be filled.”

Though Pirlo (an Italian) is talking about MLS, he could very well have been talking about American work in general. Indeed, he basically says as much: “there is a cultural void that needs to be filled.”

Hard Work is more or less the 11th Commandment in American culture–rugged individualism and all that. On the soccer field this looks like the American teams almost always being the most well conditioned group at any international competition. In the workplace, it looks like us spending significantly more time at work than our developed nation counterparts.

But we need something else. We need more play. And just as Pirlo’s use of the word carries all sorts of meaning, so does mine. We need more literal play, more imagination and child-like curiosity. But we also need more vocational freedom and creativity–something that the status quo focus on hours and tasks does not allow for–or else our hard work will be in vain.

Sometimes artificial poverty is nothing more (and nothing less) than the tremendous psychological, emotional, and relational strain of working too hard. We spend so much time and effort at work, with less and less freedom, that our play becomes warped. Instead of imaginative, childlike play; instead of creative and life-giving play, we’ve often substituted a gaudy, shallow, imposter play. And this “play” often leads to the disconnect between our priorities and our resource decisions.

Your families want you to be present all the time, not just the expensive vacations you treat them to every once in awhile. Our non-profits need more than just your checks; they need your expertise and your relationships. And our culture, boy does our culture need more of YOU. More of the person you were when you weren’t so busy running and were an expert at playing.