Day 33: Making light of a serious topic

When people have asked me whether it was wise to call my election night results party a Clinton Victory Party I am for obvious reasons in two minds! But while I called it wrong, it’s clear that one of the magical things about Play is that it allows us to experience potentially difficult events in a lighter way than we would without. When a school football team learns how it feels to be beaten on the pitch, it is clearly a better experience that failing at something that really matters and has long-term consequences.

Clearly Trump’s victory will have consequences, but by hosting a party, playing various games throughout the night, we are able to come together as a community and work through the trauma in a safe, friendly environment.

Speaking of games, we played Search for the Missing Emails, had the standard ‘colour in the map as the results come in’ (a game of sorts) and didn’t bother playing Build the Wall, because, as with so much about Donald Trump, the parody is never as ridiculous as the real thing.

Did turning the evening into play help us survive the night? It was still pretty devastating if I’m honest. But it broke up what might otherwise have been a gruelling path to learning the result, and I can only imagine that it would have felt even worse if I’d had a miserable time just waiting for news.

In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope? – Barack Obama

Ease of play: 4/10 

Resemblance to play: 5/10 

Aggression: Medium-to-High

Speed: Slow

Enjoyability: Low

Potential frequency of play: Low