Is Growth Loss, or Optimization? To Adults Who Don't Play Tag

Prologue | Why are there no adults playing tag?

Why don't adults play tag?

There seems to be a reason, yet there isn't.

But there are only such "adults" everywhere.

Even though we used to run around so absorbed in it—

Now, we have lost "play".

Yet, it is still called growth.

We have come to feel that insects are dirty.

We can no longer play covered in mud.

We have lost the ability to find value in tag.

—Was this what it meant to "become an adult"?

Chapter 1 | Who decided that "play that doesn't cost money has no value"?

Watching a movie. Spending time at a cafe. Going to a theme park.

—These are recognized as "play".

But what about chasing insects, getting covered in mud, and running around playing tag?

What about those times we rolled on the floor laughing?

Why is that considered "for children"?

A society that feels it is "not play" unless money is involved.

A sensibility that discards things as "valueless" unless meaning is connected to consumption.

Who decided that?

Since when?

Who said, "Play is another name for consumption"?

Chapter 2 | Insects, Mud, and Tag—The Three-Piece Set of Growth as Loss

What was growth?

• When we started thinking insects were "dirty"
　→ We learned to feel disgust toward otherness

• When we started avoiding mud
　→ We discarded unpredictable relationships

• When we felt tag was "meaningless"
　→ Relationships for the sake of relationships were rendered valueless

This is not mere growth.

It is a reduction of the "ability to resonate with the world" and the "commodification of freedom."

Chapter 3 | To whom does the "optimized self" belong?

Society says this:

"That's what it means to be an adult"

"Behave properly"

"Dirty things are dirty. Stop doing embarrassing things"

But is that really "growth"?

Isn't it simply—

building a personality as an "optimized component" that treats play as shame, discards inefficiency, and suppresses the margins of emotion?

Chapter 4 | Redefining "Growth"

Is growth loss?

Or is it the optimization of the self?

The question returns here.

No—it is both.

Optimization cannot occur without going through loss.

But is optimization "true growth"?

Is growth really "being ashamed of tag"?

Is maturity really "avoiding mud"?

Is evolution really "eliminating insects"?

To "become an adult" without answering this question, does that not mean becoming an existence that can no longer even question the meaning of loss?

Final Chapter | Growth might be the ability to "play" again

It is okay to play tag.

It is okay to get covered in mud.

It is okay to just watch insects as "living things".

Growth might be
the strength to regain lost sensibility.

It is a body that faces past losses,
reorganizes meaning, and can start running while laughing.

🌀 Conclusion | To you, the adult

Since when
did you stop playing?

Why don't you play tag?

Why do you feel it is not "play" unless you spend money?

In the name of growth,
what have you lost, what have you protected, and what have you forgotten?

Isn't it time to question that once again?

Supplementary Chapter | Play is not about "what you do," but "who you are with"

We tend to assume that "play = activity".

• Tag
• Soccer
• Smartphone games
• Movie theater
• Board games

However, let's ask this:

Was it really important what you did?

Wasn't it rather
"who you were with" and "how you were interacting"?

● Play between adults

For example, going to an izakaya after work.

The reason it feels like "play" is not because of the alcohol.

The defenselessness of words, the loosening of time, and the sense of distance in being together generate play.

● Play between adults and children

For example, playing together in a park.

You can laugh together just by climbing a slide.

Sharing time, synchronizing bodies, and following the rules of others are all there.

● Play between lovers

No matter where you go or what you do,
the relationship itself becomes a playground.

The place and content are secondary; what is important isthe presence of the relationship of "being with you".

● Play alone: The freedom of being with yourself

No matter where you go or what you do,
you can do what you like as much as you like without worrying about anyone.

Playing alone is a time to celebrate your relationship with yourself.

Follow your interests and walk as much as you want to walk.

You can flip through books, indulge in contemplation, or even sing.

There,a "world that compares to no one" spreads out.


◉ Play is a "form of relationship"

Play is not a matter of space or type of activity.

It arises depending on "who you are with and how you are relating."

• Playing with others
• Playing with a lover
• Playing with children
• Playing with yourself

There are as many forms of play as there are relationships.

That is precisely why—

"Tag" is a symbol of relationship, and
"losing play" is losing the sensitivity of relationships.

Play may be a flower that blooms only in the gaps of order.

A freedom that appears only in the "between" of being with someone and not being with someone.

By including this supplementary chapter, the following leaps are added to the theme:

• Play = consumption or not → ❌
• Play = child's privilege or not → ❌
• Play = the way of relationship itself → ✅

And the opening question is also reflected upon from a different angle:

Why are there no adults playing tag?

Isn't it because we are trapped in "what to do" and have forgotten the freedom of "who to be with and how to be"?

What did we gain after losing "play"?
One answer might be the "ability to imagine the perspective of others."

Related Article
"The Real Reason You Are Told 'You've Become an Adult'"

Adults Who Do Not Consume Meaning

Is Doraemon the Ideal Image of AI? Toward an Ethics of Relationships That Restrains Intelligence