As I sat there listening to Pat spelling out ‘the seven major rhetorics of play’,
I found myself drawn to ‘play as power and contest’ (like to play in sport).
That’s often what we find in community engagement. I’ve found that using
play is often the best way to get beyond defended positions and interests to
a more open understanding of an issue or issues. Pat seemed to agree when
he advised us to ‘take reality lightly’. Acknowledging that many of us had
to work within ‘stiff state bureaucracies’, Pat supported ‘a desire to live an
adaptive life of possibility and openness’. Reminding me of the liminal (or
threshold) qualities of the ecotone metaphor described in Chapter 1 of this
book, Pat explains that ‘play is a liminal aspect of the human condition’.