Playful behaviour is circumspect. Obedience and order are necessary for the maintenance of the patriarchal system. Despite or because of the is, it is critical that women of all ages remember and stress the positive aspects of our culture. The human potential for joy and celebration is a valuable means of staying connected, and of healing ourselves and our communities in these despairing times. We need to cherish the creativity, the joys, the achievements, and the resourcefulness which women have demonstrated throughout our history. Reclaiming play as a contribution to the serious learning and work of our lives is a beginning. There are lessons to be learned from the older, wiser, and more outrageous among us.

Reprinted from WEdf, Winter 1991, Volume 8, Numbers 3/4. Noreen Stevens cartoon reprinted from WEdf, Summer 1988, Volume 6, Number 3.

Lanie Melamed did her graduate studies in Adult Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Her eclectic research interests are in the area of women's ways of knowing, feminist pedagogy, adult play, and educating for peace and social change. She teaches at Concordia University in Montreal.

¹A very funny novel about a woman who chooses freedom after 65 is Constance Beresford Howe's The Book of Eve (New York, Avon Books, 1973).
²For information on the Raging Grannies, who rage and sing about contemporary social injustices, write Jean McLaren, R.R. #2, Suite 22, Comp. B, Gabriola Island, B.C., VOR 1XO

References
Belenky, et. al. Women's Ways of Knowing: : The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind. New York: Basic Books, 1986.

CCLOW members in Vancouver's Annual Peace March, April 27th, 1986. Reprinted from WEdf, Fall 1986, Volume5, Number 1.

Schiller, J. C. "Letters on the Esthetic Education of Man," in Lukacs, Historie et conscience de class (Education de minuet, collection "arguments"). Originally published in 1875.

Wischnewski, M. "Making Sense of Humour, Gender, and Power: Implications for Adult Learners." Diss. Ontario Institution for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, 1989.