Several volumes of myths were consulted on the different gods involved in various aspects of play—Burkert (1985), Guthrie (1955), Downing (1991, 1993, 2000), Paris (2000), Brockway (1993), J. Young (1996), and Kerényi (1951). The combined wisdom of Alan Watts (1975, 1951, 1974) and Chungliang Huang (1991, 2002a, 2002b) were surveyed to understand ancient Eastern thought concerning play. Anthropologist Steven Miller (1973) uses the notion of “galumphing” as an expression of play for its own sake, and Nachmanovitch (1990) discusses “galumphing” as play energy that is abundant in young children, puppies, and young civilizations. The term comes from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass (Carroll, 1975). I will discuss S. Miller’s (1973) article later in the prelude section.
As I entered the artistic phase of the dissertation process my outlook was informed by continuing to hold the following questions: How can understanding the nature of play help us to play more consciously: to play more and to play better? How might we develop ways to help people to transform so that they are more playful? How can we galumph more? How can play help us re-vision and re-embody our future?