a Play - Full Life: Slowing Down and Seeking Peace, Interview with Jaco J. Hammon

In the middle of 2020, I had an opportunity to interview Jaco Hamman, Ph.D. about the Power of a Playful Outlook. The idea being that when Play, when seen as a way of living (and not an activity one does when not working), can facilitate well-being in the workplace.

I hope you enjoy it!

In life, the same things we wish for are often the very things we fear. We long for a play-full life, yet we consciously or unconsciously fear how it will affect the life we know.

Play-fullness is a way of being, which seems contradictory in a world that tells us we will find meaning and purpose in doing something. It empowers us to be travelers rather than tourists in life. Play-fullness opens us to experience God and others anew; it empowers us to be responsive to the twists and turns in life rather than going down the road of anxious reactivity; it allows us to be guests to someone else’s hospitality.

Hamman, Jaco J.. Play-Full Life: Slowing Down & Seeking Peace . Pilgrim Press. Kindle Edition.

Jaco is a sought after speaker, Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture and the Director of the Program in Theology and Practice at Vanderbilt Divinity School. A South African, he completed his doctoral studies at Princeton Theological Seminary (Ph.D.) and his clinical training as a psychotherapist and marriage and family therapist at the Blanton-Peale Graduate Institute (New York City). Hamman has published 6 books, including the one that I recommend that you pick up if you want to understand more about Play.... A play-full life: Slowing Down and Seeking Peace (The Pilgrim Press, 2011). In these books Hamman explores the importance of play as a (trans)formative experience and the cultivation of “playground intelligence.”

He is a co-founder of Our Place Nashville, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that places adults with developmental disabilities in affordable housing alongside graduate students and displaced elderly. Our Place Nashville currently operates three Friendship Houses where 52 persons live in community. A fourth house opens this fall. Hamman’s hobbies include long-distance motorcycle travel, distilling, and hosting a braai. We talk about that too

Enjoy!