Infinite play

Last week I stood for four hours to listen to the young British singer, Jake Bugg. He clearly found it painful to be in front of a large audience and only talked three times. Each utterance was brief and so mumbled I couldn’t make out the words. But he sung with such intensity that every fibre in his body seemed to resonate with the beauty of his voice. He has a gift, and he offered it to us. That is an infinite play. In another sense, the teenage girls and boys around me were also playing an infinite game. They were singing and dancing and looking out for each other. They showed Jake that they loved his talent and could fill in the gaps he left with their cheering and clapping and laughter.

In the end, life takes place in our exchanges with each other. Sometimes we can plan our infinite play, by setting a goal or following self-imposed guidelines. But sometimes it just flows from our intuitive ability to conjure up a community.

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