The Rewards of Play

I'm not sure exactly where I went wrong in life that my religious views are copyrighted by Hasbro, but in a nutshell this is how I see things:

Imagine a large ball of Playdoh. It has infinite potential to be shaped into anything - a car, a tree, a fish, a snowman, etc. But at first it's just a big wad of dough.

A piece breaks off and shapes itself into something - for vanity's sake let's say a human. That little human is very cool, and gets to play about for awhile.

Over time the clay starts to dry out, as Playdoh does, and it's time to put it back into the mother wad so it can regain hydration and not disintegrate. The little human gets smashed up and back it goes into the wad of potential, waiting to be reformed again.

"Oy," you say, "so this is just a reincarnation metaphor."

Well, yes and no. Most reincarnation religions I've studied seem to think of our souls as unique, individual things moving from one form to the next. We put so much emphasis on our individual identities - our experiences, how they're shaped by the bodies we're in and the cultures that raise us - that most visions of an afterlife or even a second life still view the soul as a single, sacred thing. There is no going back to the same big wad of dough, per se, just that one little piece constantly getting reformed into new things.

[Note: The only exception might be taking the Buddhist "one with everything" bit more literally; perhaps that is what they actually meant, but their reincarnation process still feels very linear especially if you buy into the merit-based placement of future incarnations.]

Playdoh is much, much messier.

The way I see it your little ball of clay - all your memories, your experiences, your character flaws and strengths - will get mashed right back into that wad along with everybody else. You're going to get mixed back in with all the saints, doctors, Nobel prize winners, scientists, innovators, and superstars. You're also going to get mixed back in with all the criminals, bullies, murderers, Craigslist scammers, and general scum of society. It's all clay in the end.

"Wait!" You may object here "But what about the choices I've made in life? What about my greater morality - where is my reward if I'm just getting tossed in with all these other jerks? Even with reincarnation, if I'm good I earn karmic points and level up to something better."

Reward? Why? You got to exist - your little wad of potential became something for a brief moment in the unending temporal march of the universe. How you chose to spend that reward was up to you. Maybe you did something for the betterment of others, maybe you were a royal pain in the ass, maybe you just got a 9 to 5 and rescued a dog and retired quietly. Either way, it was your day of clay.

In the end, the point of returning to that mother wad of dough is mainly that over time our clay dries out and we need to reset. We need a break from our individuality and constant "being" to just not-be and re-cozy ourselves with the universe. Otherwise we dry out and start crumbling, meaning the fun is over.

So what if your reward isn't waiting for you, but what you're living right now?

It's those moments of play - when we get to be something new, try something different, and form into a being that will never be replicated again - that are the real rewards of existence in my mind.