Play, of course, needs to be somewhat spontaneous and cannot be planned.
You can't conjure up a laugh at will or schedule a tickle session with your kids.
You can, however, make the decision to interact more playfully with others, to give life to those quiet impulses that lurk in everyone's funny bones, to pursue activities for the sheer purpose of having fun.
At first you may be making a conscious effort to play, but before long playing will become a natural instinct.
This is what I suggest.
Being gay is a fundamental way to reconnect with pleasure.
It is an innate human activity that emerges during the first few months of life, when infants begin to laugh at a game of peek-a-boo.
Children are the masters of play.
They invoke their spirits and imaginations to conjure up a pirate ship out of a couch or a three-ring circus out of a tent of blankets and a few stuffed animals.
And children will do anything for a laugh.
Child's play takes many forms (laughter, wrestling, tickling, creation, imitation, and so on) and is essential to cognitive and motor development, stress reduction, and emotional connection to others.
One of the hallmarks of children's play is how effortlessly they can enter it; as we grow into adulthood we lose touch with our play instinct.
This is partially a neurological development and partially a by-product of socialization.
Play is gradually marginalized in our adult lives, to the point where daydreaming, humor, and sex are virtually our only remaining arenas of sanctioned playroom.
Often, we get lazy and turn to artificial chemical inducers of pleasure, like drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, or biting into a tasty chocolate bar.
Although these may give us a momentary sensation of pleasure, in the long run they debilitate our bodies, emotions, and spirits.