Play

October 21, 2021

Tommy Brunett was glowingly happy the other night. And so was my friend Paul.

Last weekend, my husband and I went to Iron Smoke Distillery to take in some live music with our friends Rebecca and Paul for the first time since the pandemic started. We could tell that Tommy, who both owns the venue and leads the house band, was ecstatic to be in front of a crowd again. The band played "Sweet Home Alabama," they played "Jambalaya," they played "Melt With You," they played their own tunes like one called "I Like Beer," and they even played "Monster Mash." They called for requests and did their best to deliver, while the crowd danced as though they hadn't in years... which, for most of us, was literally true.

For much of the time, though, Paul wasn't dancing: He was in the back of the room squinting at the live stream of a local high school football game playing on his phone. Rebecca said to me later that she might otherwise have been embarrassed, but this was an important game that meant a lot to Paul.

So playing was happening all around us: arts and sports, on the stage and in the palm. Connecting was happening, too: Far from being annoyed at Paul, friends and strangers alike kept floating over to him to check the score. It all felt good, uncommonly good.

I've always considered myself more a music fan than a sports fan, but I suddenly saw them as united in purpose. I nudged my husband. "It's the same thing!" I said, pointing first at Tommy on stage, and then at Paul peering at his screen. Whether you're playing sports or playing music, you're summoning the best you have within you, and you're doing so both for yourself and for the crowd watching and listening. And then Paul's team won by one point, which made the night perfect.

The ability to PLAY may not be unique to humans, but it serves a uniquely human need. Both arts and sports are profoundly connecting experiences, whether you're playing or watching. The pandemic has robbed us of so much play, and now we get to do it again...safely and carefully, of course, but deliberately.

So my menu for this weekend includes baseball, football... maybe even some hockey. One thing is sure: I'll never take any of it for granted ever again.

—Deb