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Bok, Edward William, 1863-1930

"A Dutch Boy Fifty Years After"

"Where there is no vision, the people perish."
It was his remark that he retired because he wanted "to play" that
Edward Bok's friends most completely misunderstood. "Play" in their
minds meant tennis, golf, horseback, polo, travel, etc.--(curious that
scarcely one mentioned reading!). It so happens that no one enjoys
some of these play-forms more than Bok; but "God forbid," he said,
"that I should spend the rest of my days in a bunker or in the saddle.
In moderation," he added, "yes; most decidedly." But the phrase of
"play" meant more to him than all this. Play is diversion: exertion of
the mind as well as of the body. There is such a thing as mental play
as well as physical play. We ask of play that it shall rest, refresh,
exhilarate. Is there any form of mental activity that secures all
these ends so thoroughly and so directly as doing something that a man
really likes to do, doing it with all his heart, all the time conscious
that he is helping to make the world better for some one else?
A man's "play" can take many forms.


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