Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-06-20
IF YOU DO NOT PLAY
BV H. Addington Bruce

There still are many, far too many, people
who do not appreciate the indispensabiIity
of play. Day after day they give themselves
to work, even on holidays and perhaps on
| Sundays, too.
They deny themselves vacations, or, if they
do take vacations, carry along some work
as a means of filling in time which ought to
be devoted to diversion. Nor is the folly of
their course lessened by the fact that they
may thus refrain from play for years seem
ingly without ill-effects
| Some day they are pretty sure to find it
necessary to consult doctor because of puz-
zling symptoms of disease These may range
| from bodily symptoms to such signs of men
tai ill-health almost complete inability
to concentrate the attention, memory weak
ness, an increasing irritability, and perhaps
an increasing depression of mind combined
with morbid dreams and suspiciousness.
To account for this condition may BATTLE
not only the sufferers themselves, but the
doctor whose advice they seek, unless he
chances to know or to, learn that they are
addicted to the never-play habit. Then quite
frankly he will inform them:
II can do little for you until you learn
to play, taking real vacations yearly and
daily giving yourself some amount of true
diversion
"That diversion will be all the more help
full to you if, in part, at all events, it is
taken in the form of some pleasurable out
door activity But if you have no interest
in, and feel that you cannot work up an in.
terest in, such outdoor play as may be had
through golf or tennis or horseback riding,
you certainly can at least acquire some hobby
that will give your mind the diversion it must
| have"
And, by way of explanation, the doctor may
add:
| "Play is a necessity to everybody as an aid
| in physical hygiene, as a means of providing
a change in mental occupation, and, not least,
as device for temporarily freeing ones self
from the tension imposed by the problems
and duties of ones occupational existence.
"No matter how much a man may enjoy
his work, so that that work itself seems
as play to him, it's exactions and the desire
to excel in it keep his mind in a state of
tension. This tension must from time to time
be relieved, and there is nothing quite like
play to relieve it.
eff it is not relieved breakdown is bound
to come soon or late. In mild cases it takes
the form of a general nervousness. In ex-
IRENE cases it may involve loss of mental
elasticity, loss of mental poise, and even loss
Of sanity ITSELF
If any among my readers have to confess
to being of the unfortunate compan. of those
who do not play, it will be well for them
to give careful consideration to the above
statement of facts.
And this season of the year, the vacation
season, proffers them exceptional opportunity
to mend their ways and acquire play habit
which they need in common with all man
kind
Let them resolve to take this year a vaca-
ton that will be genuinely vacation, not a
make-believe one. Still more important, let
them resolve to make play truly part of
their lives, not only during vacations, but
the whole year through.
For play, I would repeat, is one Of the
things which most assuredly cannot be done
without, no matter how non-players may
believe to the contrary.
Copyright, 1922, by the Associated News
papers)