A couple of different thought threads have been going through my mind the last month about the importance of play in my own life. A religious friend gave me a book called The Fabric of Faithfulness about the role of a college education in shaping our life stories and faiths. Although I’m not persuaded by the theistic arguments I did start thinking about how I would describe my personal, atheistic beliefs.
From there I was reminded of one of the best books I’ve ever read, Finite and Infinite Games, by James P. Carse. He concludes that book by saying “there is but one infinite game.” And that infinite game, in my humble opinion, is nothing less than life itself. An infinite game is a game that is played with the only purpose of keeping the game going.
So, from the NDSL Scout report, I find this link to a site created by the Lemelson Center for the study of invention and innovation and the Science Museum of Minnesota, where I work as a volunteer. The site is called “Invention at Play” and contains some great examples of online games, including tangrams (one of my personal favorites). So my theories of play, creativity, and the meaning of life coincide in cyberspace. This many personal obsessions in one place can be a bit heady.
