Meditation Game
DESCRIPTION
Make a Rube Goldberg machine®. Official Site
INSTRUCTIONS
Design a machine that uses the most complex process possible to complete a simple task. Have at least ten steps. Use whatever you can find in your house: rubber bands, string, paper cups, clothespins, dominoes, marbles, hammers, clamps, coins, tennis racquets, balls, pie pans, paper towel and toilet paper tubes, mouse traps, buttons, eggs, balloons, toy cars, or even running water. Try one of these tasks, or make up your own: put tooth paste on a tooth brush, fill a cup of water, stick a stamp to an envelope, put a lid on a jar, sharpen a pencil, put coins in jar, turn the page of a book, pop a balloon, swing a tennis racquet or golf club to hit a ball. There might even be a local contest you can enter -- look for opportunities on the internet.
RELATED IDEA
Build a tower as high as you can out of a single type of "building block" such as marshmallows, paper cups, or saltine crackers.
Build something interesting and functional from Legos™, Lincoln Logs™ or Tinker Toys™.
JOY'S JOURNEY
Rube Goldberg was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist. He drew people using complicated and bizarre "inventions" to perform simple tasks, like opening umbrellas and exterminating moths. It was his way of poking fun at how we use simple everyday things to build overly complicated lives.
My days used to run from five o'clock in the morning until eleven o'clock at night, filled with people, places, and things I enjoyed. By most people's definitions, including my own at the time, I had a fulfilling life and a successful career. I began looking at the life I had built when my sister died in 1988. The word "tomorrow" and the phrase "the future" lost their sense of inevitability for me. If she had died at age twenty-nine, then how could I continue to assume I'd be alive at thirty, forty or fifty? I realized I was tolerating a lot of pain today, as an investment toward tomorrow being better. What if tomorrow never came, and this pain is all I had? I began asking myself tough questions like, "If I knew I only had ten healthy years left, how would I spend today, tomorrow, and this year?" It was through answering those questions I found myself in massage therapy school, where a whole new definition of preventive medicine opened up for me.
As you build your Rube Goldberg machine®, you might want to ask yourself these questions: Are you turning life into something far more complicated than it needs to be? How much pleasure are you sacrificing in your current life for the hope that tomorrow will be more pleasant? Are you truly happy, or have you simply become numb to the pain? Perhaps you'll finish this project with a deep realization that you are happy and content with the choices you've made, or maybe you'll feel inspired to start building a less complicated yet more meaningful life.
QUOTES
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.
Milton Berle
He who builds to every man's advice
will have a crooked house.
Danish Proverb
Dr. Joy is available to present playful workshops (playshops) at your corporate training retreat, non profit organization gathering, or club membership meetings. She is located in Denver, Colorado, and travels throughout the US to deliver Serious Fun ™ Programs for personal growth, wellness, and inspiration. Please see the program pages for details and contact information.
This playful meditation activity is COPYRIGHTED. If you are a professional trainer, coach, human resources person, counselor, or therapist it is not ethical nor legal for you to use it or share it with your clients or those you supervise/train as part of your job. See the copyright notice on the front page of this e-book. Remember, character is what you do when no one is looking. Please take the high road, and pay me appropriately to use these materials professionally, even if you work for a church, school, non-profit or the government.
© Copyright 1999-2008 by Joy Koenig. All Rights Reserved.
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