I got to know my wife's grandfather through many rounds of croquet played together. Obviously that's not how I met him; but it was during impromptu attempts to speed through wickets on summer afternoons that he learned that I was the type of guy who was willing to take trash-talk from an ornery 75-year old man and who was equally willing to give it right back to him. It was there that I learned the humility (and joy) of losing to a legally blind geriatric case who needed me to confirm that his ball did, in fact, successfully disqualify mine. I've loved him ever since.
In August every summer, Fopma cousins from all over invade farmland south of Grinnell to do battle in a loosely-officiated backyard volleyball game and an epic wiffle ball contest (ice cream lids for bases, corn for a warning track) for yearlong bragging rights and the right to eat one's evening dessert with a taste of victory rather than with the lump of missed opportunities. This gathering perennially firms relationships inside our clan.
Playing games of this sort has been directly responsible for creating or solidifying many of the key relationships in my life. Ping pong, ladder golf, basketball, dunkball, slow-pitch softball, and even crutch-ball have placed me in the position to discover the best qualities in many of the people that I love. All it took was play.
At the end of basketball camp this year, we told the kids that one of the best things they could do this summer was just go and play. Go find a couple of other kids, or maybe just one, and go play. Sure, camps are good. Scheduled open gyms are fine. But unscheduled, unplanned play with no one watching and nothing at stake except for winning and losing on that day will produce far more. Go to the driveway, or the park, or the Y, or the nerf hoop in your living room. Just play ball.
We believe this will make them better basketball players. But it will do far more for them than that. It continues to do more for me. Playing games on good days has ensured that on the tough days, the ones where play would be wildly out of place, I've got someone there for me just the same.
It's summer. Go find a game.
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