Magic: a formal and serious approach to the important business of playing with toys.
—Orson Welles
Prayer can take many forms. For some, it is kneeling before a statue or image of Jesus or a saint. For others, it is communing with nature — there is even an outdoor movement known as Wild Church. Still others feel they can pray anytime, anywhere, simply by closing their eyes and sending thoughts to a presence greater than themselves.
The other day, when the news was so grim I thought I would lose my mind, prayer came to me in the form of a Rubik’s Cube. I had accepted that in that moment, and despite the fact that I actually pray for a living, I would not be able to sit still and call on the spirit of life. I doubted I would be able to write in my reflection journal. I needed solace but I also wanted to be productive. So I decided to see if I remembered anything from the time several years ago that I learned how to solve a Rubik’s Cube.
I won’t bore you with the technicalities, but a Rubik’s Cube is easily solved by remembering one basic principle and memorizing roughly ten algorithms — chains of twists and turns that return the cube to a solid color on each side. Okay, not easy easy, but also less impossible than you might think. Interestingly, the cube’s Hungarian inventor, Ernő Rubik, once said he created his famous brainchild when searching for a good task to give his architecture students. Something to occupy their minds. (Fun fact: Rubik was born in Budapest, birthplace of another famous Hungarian, Harry Houdini.)
My Rubik’s Cube turned out to be just the task for me. Like playing guitar, like practicing magic, it completely occupied my mind; there was no room for terror. Fortunately, I had forgotten much of what I’d learned years ago about solving the cube. I say fortunately because getting to relearn how to play in a certain way is like meeting up with an old friend. There is something sacred in calling forth a corner of your memory you thought was gone and remembering how much fun you had discovering a game or a hobby or a musical instrument. If prayer is the act of connecting with the divine, then playing can be praying, for it reaches down, deep down, into the divine inside.
It might seem almost sacrilegious to stop and play right now. There is a lot on the line and people are suffering. As of this writing, the war in Ukraine rages on. But that is exactly the point: We need to bring our best selves to the battles ahead. Our brains need a break. The child genius deep within us begs to be heard. The world they thought they would live in is the world we are fighting for now. So don’t dismiss play. It remembers how you came to be you, even when you don’t.