Play is such a powerful practice. Mr. Rogers calls it “the work of childhood.” Other theorists of play see it as an antidote to brittleness and fixed mindset, because it allows us to try things out and see what the impact is, tweaking if we need to. I’ve also come to see it as a holy insurrection against capitalism and white supremacy – joy and pleasure and emotional investment for their own sake, apart from productivity, often apart from any visible “purpose.” Play is healing to relationships and to our own souls. And in the case of the games Bashier offered us, it also revealed some powerful learnings.

Racism makes isolation and estrangement seem like the normal order of things, particularly in cross-race relationships, no matter how much our humanness and our longing recognizes that there’s something vital missing.

On a sunny fall afternoon last Wednesday, our 2021 Racial Rec crew gathered, masked up and thrilled to be together, in the Southern Jamaica Plain Community Health Center. It was the first time since we began this season when young people and faculty could be together in the same space. Despite the challenges of reading each other’s facial expressions behind masks, we dove into some powerful work together: workshopping and questioning and dedicating ourselves to our Commitments.

My hope is that you also can take a piece of our framework and apply it to pieces of your lives, communities, and organizations. It starts with us.