Posted on: Sunday, January 30, 2005

FAMILY MATTERS
Fountain of youth just playtime for adults

By Michael DeMattos

It was a simple question really. I was riding the stationary bike watching TV when my daughter asked what I was doing.

"I am exercising," I said.

Now, she has witnessed this crazy ritual, me riding my bike-to-nowhere for years, but this was the first time I got the proverbial 20 questions.

Most were easy to answer, but when she asked if she should be exercising she got me thinking.

"No," I said after some time, "Playing keeps you fit and trim, it's your exercise. I have to work at staying in shape."

By the time I got off the bike I was huffing and puffing. It is not easy climbing an imaginary hill while talking to a very real child.

I am not sure exactly when it happened, but at some point I stopped playing. I used to be just like my daughter, with a daily routine that included a healthy dose of playtime. Like a racehorse waiting for the starting gun to fire and the gate to drop, I spent my afternoons penned up until mom gave me the all-clear sign to go outside and play. Once out, I would run and laugh aloud until sundown or until I heard my mother calling me to come home. I was a thoroughbred, long and lean, shaped by my environment.

I suppose some things never change. I am still shaped by my environment. My rear end looks suspiciously like my office chair and my belly is a great pillow for my daughter when we watch Disney flicks on Saturday night.

Hey I am no dummy, I know that maintaining my health is critical, and I try my best, I really do, but it seems that we have ruined a good thing.

Somehow we were sold some snake oil and told it was a magical elixir. Exercise and play got confused and we were told that 20 minutes on a treadmill would do wonders.

Reduced to simple physical activity, exercise now looks more like work. In fact we call exercise working out! We set goals: to lose weight and inches, to gain muscle and improve tone. Exercise was added to our to-do-list while play was left to the children.

Let's put this in perspective. We no longer go outside to play; instead we have brought exercise equipment in. We hop on our stationary bike and pedal for miles going nowhere. Sounds crazy to me.

It is just my guess, but I am willing to wager that we would all be a whole lot healthier if we played a little more; if we slowly pulled away from the desk, computer and TV set; if we got off the bike-to-nowhere and actually put one foot in front of the other and walked right out our front door.

After years astray, I am playing again. Yes, I still hop on the stationary bike and pedal for miles going absolutely nowhere, but I also play baseball and soccer in the backyard with my wife and daughter. On Saturday mornings I chase a little white ball into a small hole on an emerald green. I will even cast a line over a cresting wave. I would like to believe that if I played more my waistline would shrink, but it may not. Still, I am willing to bet that a little more play would make for a healthier, happier life, and that may just make all the difference in the world.

Family therapist Michael C. DeMattos has a master's degree in social work.