A while ago, I was watching a television court show and heard a judge say an interesting statement. The situation was that a 22 year old man was talking about how he spends hours playing video games. The man asked the judge if he knows about the video games he was talking about. The judge answered that she does not play games anymore. The audience applauded.

Granted that it is not a good use of time to play video games for hours (it is addictive and usually sedentary), the judge's statement is actually sad and the audience should not have applauded.

Play is the primary means to connect with kids. If we stop having the ability to play, we would not be able to connect with kids.  I am not talking about just about playing sports, which is important, but using the imagination, as a child would. If we could not express our imagination in play, we could not join a child in his world.

If we are to influence the next generation for good, we must be able to walk with them in their world of imagination. You can learn something about a child by the way she plays with her dolls (how the dolls interact, how the dolls deal with situations, etc.). The stories that the child makes up tells us about her view of the world and we can be a part of shaping that view of the world.

Do you want to influence a child? Learn to sit and play with his toy soldiers, enter his world, and express your imagination. Do some interactive play with a child- chess, checkers, cards, etc. We will not reach the next generation by building a gap between the generations, excluding them and refusing to enter their world.