RECREATION

This is euphoria. Have you ever seen nursery or primary school children coming out into the playground after a morning's work? Their whole bodies convey a feeling of liberation expressed in an uncontrollable trance. They are jubilant. Their cries release a breath held deep in their core; their legs run towards imaginary horizons, and everything becomes effervescent. All that's left is the insatiable desire to get ahead of this frenzy, to savor every second of this interlude that is playtime, to live in this freedom, which leaves them free to decide what they want to do, far from instructions, requirements, and learning. Some do a semblance of a dance, with their arms in the air, to relax their muscles; others wait on a low wall, looking up at the sky, stealing a moment of poetic respite from the day; still, others organize group games, demonstrating an insatiable energy. Admittedly, recess can sometimes be an ambiguous space, a place of conflict, where social pressure ravages from an early age, but having attended hundreds of recesses, I have to say that, on the whole, there is something profoundly joyful about them. Three times a day, the children honor this imperative need to let go of the ramp and to let life express itself without constraint. It's amazing. What is it like for us? At what point do we rediscover this intoxication of effortless curiosity? Is it completely taken away from us? What do we intoxicate ourselves with so that we are so heavily burdened with the weight of our performance? Drinking? Cycling in the dark? Dancing in nightclubs? Binge-watching a series? Walking in nature? Contemplating a painting? How do we reach that moment where the superego leaves us in peace? Where do we lose ourselves?

"And those who danced were considered mad by those who could not hear the music" - Nietzsche.

I hope you find your playground.

Marie Robert is an author and philosophy teacher. As the head of Montessori schools, she created @philosophyissexy to share her philosophical reflections daily.

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