PoP Book 06.2s MidRes - Flipbook - Page 9
Eruption
It was bloody typical.
While news channels all flashed grim pictures of a virus on the march,
and politicians in every country argued and drew up their battle plans,
planet Earth was also being infected by something else. Something
primal and very powerful, but entirely different. In uniquely human fashion,
in the midst of life-changing difficulty, societal chaos, and a completely
reordered sense of space and time, this peculiar essence multiplied;
seeping outwards and touching everyone as it spread.
As intangible as a disease, it affected strangers, networks and culture
day after day, alongside the one causing distress and death. But instead
of worsening the anxiety, this infection was like a natural antidote, bringing people together to see new possibilities and shared perspectives.
Spontaneously, all over the world, it had them dancing like pantomime
horses, working out on oil-greased kitchen floors, composing comic
songs, harmonising from balconies, crafting in countless ways, making
animation with vegetables, designing mad gadgets, and concocting a
million other jokes, skits and memes to swap at every hour of the clock.
So, what was this other contagion? Well, the best way I can describe it
is a planetary-scale eruption of play.
•
Maybe it passed you by, or you’ve already forgotten. Maybe grim realities
have taken over. The truth is, though, far from being bad-taste indulgence
in the middle of such a brutal situation, it appears to be absolutely standard
with our species. In the most bizarre predicaments, with dislocation and
confusion everywhere, we can go into play-overdrive looking for joy and
connection to bring us back to our strengths. Indeed, as I type, it’s still
going on, and passing through the ether and the cables, are images of
and from the largest selection of grown adults I’ve ever seen doing their
damnedest to enjoy themselves; sharing ideas with numberless others,
and reveling in their own imaginations.
This is all great, of course, in its sense of life-affirming positivity. But if
this was all there was to play — larking about to raise a smile and raise
the spirits — and if everyone shared exactly this same definition, this
rather stunted view, then there wouldn’t be much point in carrying on
writing. But that’s just it. As ever, we still have deep confusion about
Introduction / Eruption
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