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PAGE 5—November 22, 1973
The Games Families Play
“BICYCLING is a good example of a recreation
which can include the whole family, be restful,
healthful and fun. We look forward to Sundays when
we can get out and hit the bike trail. I consider it to be
family play in the best sense -- for us.” A family group
rides along a bike path silhouetted against a backdrop
of clouds. (NC Photo)
BY JANE WILLIAMS PUGEL
There are certain games people play which make complete
fools out of grownups.
Have you ever been enticed into a game of Concentration by
some child who hardly comes up past your knees? I have. After
it was over, I heard my opponent, a boy about seven, say
seriously to his brother, “Mom’s nice, but sometimes she seems
kind of dumb.”
Of course, Concentration is totally unfitted to the adult
mind. It’s a sadistic game in which all the cards are placed face
down on a table, and the object is to peek at one, remember
what it is and where it is, and eventually match up all the pairs
in the deck.
When I play, I plan menus, figure out a new wardrobe for a
daughter which will cost less than $10, try to recall what my
husband told me to do without fail, and occasionally glance at a
king of hearts or a 10 of spades. I worry, think, dream, plan --
but do very little concentrating, while the pint-sized card shark
opposite me makes a clean sweep of the deck.
What got me started on this pathetic review of my card
playing was the realization the other day that we are smack up
against the holiday season with all its attendant revelry. I’ve
found myself thinking about the traditional year-end
merry-making, and just how it might fit in with the part play
should have in our family life.
What is family play? A game of Concentration is one thing,
but family recreation in the total picture is something else.
Before we get sucked into the undertow of holiday “festivities,”
it might be a good time to stand back and take a thoughtful
look at our more relaxed side as a family.
Is play merely a series of parties from which we have to
recover? Or should it be some activity that rests us and leaves us
ready to renew our efforts? From what we see and hear around
holiday time, and from the groans and complaints of “Never
again!” after the holidays, it seems that a lot of us equate play
with din, spirits and late hours. It also seems that a lot of our
family merry-making falls into the adults-only, teens-only,
tots-only brackets.
Family play should not only rest, amuse and divert us, but it
should also be generally aimed at strengthening the ties that
bind. We should discover leisure activities that include the entire
family. Not everybody is going to enjoy everything each of the
others do, but we do have common meeting grounds in our
pursuit of fun.
In our family, we just happen to be bicycle freaks. We do
other things too - but bicycling is a good example of a
recreation which can include the whole family, be restful,
healthful and fun. We look forward to Sundays when we can get
out and hit the bike trail. I consider it to be family play in the
best sense - for us.
I also know that it could be a completely blah experience for
other families. Other people ski, listen to their stereo, talk, or
just be quiet. Play is what you think is fun and need not require
money, fresh air or muscle fatigue.
The important thing about family play is for each family to
assess itself on what it is gaining from the way it recreates. Is the
family more fractured and frantic when it is trying to relax? Or
does its play really amuse and rest it as a group?
Play, like everything else in God’s plan, is given us for our
ultimate good. I happen to think it’s one of our nicest means of
getting to Heaven.
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(Ail Articles On This Page Copyrighted 1973 by N.C. News Service)
Know Y our F aith
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★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
“WHEN THAT SAME FAMILY hitches up its
camper and takes off for a weekend, I would think
both the personal involvement and consequent
satisfaction of everyone increases.” Two family
camping groups share a meal at a campsite in Point
Beach State Park along Lake Michigan (NC Photo)
i I 1
Family Play and Catechesis
BY FR. CARL J. PFEIFER, S.J.
Dear Father Pfeifer,
About our Family Play. It’s the best time of all because It’s
the time when we know that momy and daddy realy realy care
about us.
Come And Play with us! You’ll see!!!!
'\
Love, Amy.
Seven-year-old Amy wrote me this letter last week. Actually
her letter arose out of a dinner conversation she had had with
her parents. They were talking about what to do on the
weekend. Amy immediately suggested: “If it’s nice, let’s play
kickball, or football, or baseball.”
V
Her parents asked her why it was so important that they
spend the weekend playing together. Amy was silent for a
moment as she thought about the question. Then she said,
“Because when you play with us (Amy has a younger brother,
Benji) we know you really care about us.”
Her parents were surprised. They spontaneously responded,
“But we care about you all of the time. We cook for you, take
care of you when you are sick, buy clothes for you.” They
mentioned several things they had done recently that seemed
more important than playing.
about their parents. A common theme was: “Mom and Dad give
me anything I ask for that they can afford, I get almost
anything I want. But they seem never to have time just to be
with me, to enjoy being together, to play with me.”
Perhaps the explanation of Amy’s intuition and that of the
teenagers I listened to is that play so obviously reveals personal
values. Amy and the teenagers knew in their own way that their
parents showed love for them by working, cooking, caring for
them, and giving them gifts. But when mom and dad found time
just to play with them they most surely sensed their own value
as loved and lovable individuals. Real playing together has no
other purpose than simply enjoying each other’s company. This
says without words, “You’re important to me. I love just being
with you.”
Finding time to play together may not only deepen bonds of
love within the family, but family play may also open young
and old alike to God whose delight, according to the Bible, is to
enjoy the company of people, and whose creative activity is
called play. Playing together can therefore be a very effective
form of family religious education.
Process or Product
Read over Amy’s letter once again. Then test her invitation:
“Come and play with us! You’ll see!”
But Amy firmly insisted: “But when we have fun and play all
together, we know you really really care about us.”
When Amy’s parents told me about their conversation, I
asked them if Amy would write me her ideas on family play.
She wrote me the letter. Her insight is profound beyond her
seven years. Family play may somehow be a surer sign of
genuine love than working together or helping each other.
I became more aware of this in conversations with teenagers -
in a Catholic high school where I taught for several years and in
a State correctional institution where I worked part-time. In
both situations youngsters confided to me some of their feelings
be. oaus -PtiT + k
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“AMY FIRMLY INSISTED: ‘But when we have fun
and play all together, we know you really really care
about us.’ . . .Her insight is profound beyond her seven
years. Family play may somehow be a surer sign of
genuine love than working together or helping each
other.” A letter from Amy to Father Pfeifer about the
value of family play. (NC Photo)
BY FATHER JOSEPH M. CHAMPLIN
Which is more important for good worship: the process
through which a liturgy is planned and executed or the finalized
product which results from these efforts?
Translated into specific illustrations:
Would it be better for a worshiping community to have at
Mass one of its high school girls who plays the flute only
moderately well or a professional musician from outside who
can handle that instrument flawlessly?
How about participation leaflets designed by a grammer
school student which leaves something to be desired or more
technically excellent items produced by a commercial artist?
What of a liturgy planned carefully and well by a priest-sister
team or one less perfectly done by a committee from the
congregation?
Most persons would probably opt for the teenage flutist, the
grammar school booklet, the committee prepared worship
service. They consider the process as ultimately more critical
and valuable than the product.
Those who judge in that fashion will find impressive support
from today’s experts in group dynamics and from liturgical
principles outlined in the revised Roman Catholic ritual books.
A key paragraph (no. 313) in the General Instruction of the
Roman Missal establishes this basic norm for every worship
service:
“The pastoral effectiveness of a celebration depends in great
measure on choosing reading, prayers, and songs which
correspond to the needs, spiritual preparation, and attitude of
the participants . . .In planning the celebration, the priest should
consider the spiritual good of the assembly rather than his own
desires. The choice of texts is to be made in consultation with
the ministers and others who have a function in the celebration,
including the faithful.”
Similar sections in the rituals for baptism, marriage and
funerals urge the priest to work with the parents, the engaged
couple, the deceased’s family in planning and executing the
ceremony.
Finally, the Vatican Letter on Eucharistic Prayers discussed
last week emphasized that Roman Catholics have not yet given
sufficient attention to the spiritual good which a worshiping
assembly derives from planning liturgical celebrations.
Persons skilled in the area of group dynamics would speak a
loud “Amen” in response to that statement, recognizing behind
it the natural, human value of involving each individual within a
community or committee in the decision-making process.
Thus, the more a chair person calls upon or elicits remarks
from members of the unit under his or her direction, the better
a leader he or she is, the more effective the meeting, the greater
the satisfaction for every participant.
Similarly, the deeper members of a worshiping community
become engaged in the process of planning and executing their
liturgy, the more they feel part of the finished product. They
sense a responsibility for its success or failure, they suffer or
rejoice over what was right and when things went wrong. In
word, they belong; it becomes their own.
Do we not see these points verified in various family
activities, especially recreation? When a man’s wife and children
sit in the stands and cheer him on as he plays in a very
competitive slow pitch softball league, there is a certain
involvement and satisfaction for all. But when that same family
hitches up its camper and takes off for a weekend, I would
think both the personal involvement and consequent
satisfaction of everyone increases.
Whats A ll This A bout Threshing Floors?
BY STEVE LANDREGAN
A friend recently asked me the question: “Why is the Bible
always talking about threshing floors?” A look at the
concordance seems to indicate that while threshing floors were
not mentioned as often as he seemed to think (only nine times),
nevertheless, they did play an important role in some of the Old
Testament stories.
The most famous threshing floor would have to be the one
belonging to Araunah the Jebusite (2 Sam. 24:16) located on
Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. The Bible relates the story of David
incurring the displeasure of God by taking a census of Israel.
The census is interpreted by scholars as a lack of faith in God by
David, since its purpose seemed to be to determine available
military manpower.
In any event, David confessed his sinfulness when a plague
struck his people. He was then directed to offer a sacrifice in
atonement for his offense against God. He bought the threshing
floor of Araunah the Jebusite, set up an altar there, and offered
sacrifices. The plague ceased.
The special significance of this story is that the site of
Araunah’s threshing floor is the traditional site of Solomon’s
Temple and, according to legend, is the same spot where
Abraham’s hand was stayed as he was about to sacrifice Isaac.
The story in 2 Samuel establishes David as purchasing the
Temple site and offering first sacrifices there. In the Book of
Ruth, the Moabite comes to Boaz while he sleeps on the
threshing floor (Ruth 3:6f) as farmers would do to prevent
thieves from stealing their grain.
It was the report brought to David that the Philistines were
“plundering the threshing floors,” that resulted in his rescuing
the citizens of Ceila (1 Sam 23:If).
There are other references to threshing and threshing floors
usually in connection with defeat in war or with the judgments
of God (Is. 41:15, Hos. 13:3, Mi. 4:13 and Hab. 3:12).
By the time the mention of threshing floors comes up in the
Bible, the Israelites had long since abandoned their nomad’s
tents for the plow (a fact frequently bemoaned by the
prophets).
For farmers and for farm villages, a threshing floor was a
common and multi-purpose thing. When the grain was harvested
it was brought to the threshing floor where a variety of methods
were used to separate the stalks from the head. Sometimes only
the hooves of animals were used; on other occasions, wagons,
sledges and flails were utilized.
Whatever the method, the threshing required a flat, dry
surface. The threshing floor usually was paved with stones to
keep it from geing muddy. The result was that the threshing
floor was frequently the only paved area in the village and lent
itself to many uses by the villagers.
In order to assure good drainage it was ordinarily located on a
hilltop or some other high ground. Unfortunately, the Israelites
had a hang-up about high places for worship, and while such
practice was forbidden, nevertheless many threshing floors
served as places of clandestine worship of Yahweh or Canaanite
gods.
The threshing of grain and the related process of winnowing
were part and parcel of Israelite life in both Old and New
Testament times. For this reason John the Baptist (Matt. 3:12,
Luke 3:17) as well as the prophets were quick to compare the
separation of the grain from the stalk, and the chaff from the
grain to God’s separating the good from the evil, the faithful
from the unfaithful.
To get back to my friend’s question: “Why is the Bible
always talking about threshing floors?” I guess the answer
would have to be because everybody had one in their village or
up on the hillside and, to put it in today’s idiom, it was
something with which everyone could identify.