Play, Sport, and Spirit<\/em>,<\/a> reflecting on what\u2019s lost when the element of play is marginalized in sports.<\/p>\nOver the last decade or so, he\u2019s seen all levels of sports become instrumentalized, which Kelly describes as the process of using something for one\u2019s own personal gain, like when private coaches encourage parents to spend thousands of dollars for private training and travel leagues.<\/p>\n
Athletic training has become a vehicle for external goods, and younger generations are missing out on many of the intrinsic values Kelly gained from his athletic career.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung people are dropping out of sport by age 13 because it\u2019s no longer fun,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cIt’s just become so serious. There\u2019s that going on youth sports, but also, we can see a lot of examples of how sports at its higher levels are ratcheting up.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYouth sports participation among children ages 6 to 12 in the United States fell from 45% in 2008 to 38% in 2018, according to the\u00a0Sports & Fitness Industry Association.<\/p>\n
The topic has gained widespread notoriety in publications like the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0because of the adverse effects the decline in participation has on adolescent and adult physical health, self-esteem and their ability to work in teams and problem-solve.<\/p>\nKelly believes that play in sports provides many spiritual and psychological benefits rooted in Catholic teachings. Yet even those who continue with sports often miss out on such perks because many of today\u2019s collegiate and professional athletes are no longer engaging in athletic activities that are enjoyable for their own sake.<\/p>\n
He says the idea of a \u201cplay ethic\u201d is most notably articulated by Catholic theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas, who pondered whether there is virtue in games in his\u00a0Summa Theologica<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u201cHe says yes because virtue has to do with moderation,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cHe\u2019s drawing on Aristotle here, but virtue has to do with moderation. If a life consists only of work or serious considerations, this would be excessive. A fully human life also needs time for recreation, for relaxation. Play activities provide that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly also sees a connection between getting lost in the play and Saint Ignatius of Loyola\u2019s teachings on spiritual consolation, the process of drawing one\u2019s heart closer to God.<\/p>\n
\n
\u201cIn a flow experience, there\u2019s a potential connecting point between experiences young people have playing sports, other kinds of play activities, and creative activities in a lot of different domains,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cAlso, what Ignatius calls spiritual consolation is analogous to a flow experience and can help us to understand the potential \u2018throughline\u2019 between such experiences and spirituality.\u00a0 It\u2019s a way to understand the human and spiritual significance of such activities.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Throughout the book, Kelly draws on other philosophers and scientific research to uncover why play leads to\u00a0human flourishing and openness to transcendence, which includes practical applications of spiritual consolation.<\/p>\n
In\u00a0Play, Sport, and Spirit<\/em>, Kelly interviews Madison, a Detroit Mercy soccer player and one of his former students, who discovered her vocation as a nurse because she found herself entering a familiar flow state.<\/p>\n\u201cJust as when I play soccer, I am able to completely immerse myself into a zone where no outside distractions affect me,\u201d Madison says in the book, \u201cI also see myself getting lost in a process I enjoy when I become a nurse and have to take care of people. I can build this new flow experience upon my older one because of the way I know and understand myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can find more of Fr. Kelly’s writing\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrick Kelly, S.J. \u201983, a former all-conference free safety at Grand Valley State, retired from football more than 40 years ago. Yet to this day, sports continue to serve an integral role in his life and work as\u00a0associate professor of Religious Studies at Detroit Mercy. Last fall, Kelly took part …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":8078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12,22,4,19],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2023\/06\/kelly_book_side.jpeg?fit=400%2C595&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Kcng-26h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8079,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8077\/revisions\/8079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Cover](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.udmercy.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/88\/2023\/06\/kelly_book_side.jpeg?resize=400%2C595&ssl=1\")
Patrick Kelly, S.J. \u201983, a former all-conference free safety at Grand Valley State, retired from football more than 40 years ago.<\/p>\n