My wife and I got really into board games during lockdown but now that life is 'normal' again, they feel frivolous and we keep canceling game nights for 'more important' things. We're realizing we only gave ourselves permission to play when everything else was shut down, like play needs a crisis to justify it.
More people experience this than they realize.
You're confronting the cultural assumption that play requires justification and can only be prioritized when 'real life' is suspended.
“Where Are You with What is play — a philosophical definition?”
If this sounds familiar, the Library can help you find the bigger picture.