This summer, on July 25, a water slide that's as long as three football fields is coming to downtown Chattanooga.
Seriously.
It's called Slide the City, and it's like the longest slip-n'-slide our city has ever seen. It's 1,000 feet long -- at the least, organizers say -- and will stretch out on some yet-to-be-announced downtown street. For $15, you get one ride. For $50, you can slide all day.
"This slide's got more cushion than your grandpa's orthopedic sneakers," Slide the City's website reads. "Make sure to bring your water buckets, floaties, and water guns (non-realistic of course), to squirt, spray, splash, and get all attending soaked."
That's about the best thing since Olaf and warm hugs. Why?
"Play matters," said Dr. Vicki Anderson.
Seriously.
Anderson is assistant principal at Nolan Elementary, and a master of the importance of play-making. That water slide? She'll be first in line. It's automatic giggles and goofiness. It's fun.
You know, fun.
(You do remember what fun is, don't you?)
"It sounds a little juvenile and beneath most adults," Anderson said. "Especially educated ones. We're the worst."
Seriously.
Here's a definition of fun: any activity -- Frisbee golf, four squares, the tickle monster, a downtown water slide -- that gets you out of your mind and into your body. You laugh. You quit thinking about the mortgage. You are freed from worry and stress.
It's physiological: play generates a chemical response in your brain, which floods the body with rock-star feel-goodness.
"Serotonin and dopamine and endorphins," she said. "When you laugh, your blood vessels, arteries and capillaries expand a little bit, which lowers your blood pressure."
This isn't just kid's talk. Adult play is equally important, for years of stress and burdens can wear us down like social erosion.
"Play staves off anxiety and depression," Anderson said. "You're living in the moment. There is no time for regret or fear when you're in the middle of doing something you enjoy."
Earlier this year, Anderson gave a TED Talk on the importance and power of play. (Her 10-minute talk -- "Give me a break. Reasons we can't afford not to play" -- can be found on YouTube). Anderson talks to schools about the generative power of play, which is just as important -- probably more so -- than testing and homework.
"When you play, you make new brain cells," she said.
When she was at Allen Elementary, Anderson worked carefully with teachers on ways to incorporate play into their daily classroom. Doing so creates an easy spirit, and loosens things up. Adult lives turn lighter, and our kids begin to shake off some of the free-floating anxiety that hounds America today.
Those Allen teachers? By the end of the year, many reported higher attendance rates and higher job satisfaction.
"We integrated play into the learning process," Anderson said.
Years ago, Anderson lived through some tough days, and one of the things that healed her and her son was intentional, liberating play. Our emotional darkness can be countered by the laughter and sweet fellowship that comes when two people play together. It's therapeutic and character-building.
"Aristotle said he could learn more about a person in an hour of play than a day of work," Anderson said, with a grin.
So Anderson -- wise, jolly, intuitive, just the person you want at a school -- embodies that mix of intellectualism and light-heartedness. She'll sneak up behind kids while they're walking to lunch or recess, and act like she's one of them. She's quick with a joke, has a stash of puppets and masks and toys. For a nervous 7-year-old, that means the world.
"When you play, you feel better," she said.
Seriously.
See you at the water slide.
Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter at DavidCookTFP.