Conversation isn't always the path to connection.

We live in a head-first, cerebral society. When you meet someone, the script begins:

• What's your name?
• What do you do?
• Where are you from?

Even if you go deeper — What are you most passionate about? What’s your greatest fear? — you’re still in the head.

But what if connection didn’t always come through questions?

What if we used play instead? A card game, a board game. Writing a note to each other. Charades. Something that shifts us out of thinking and into doing.

The danger of only asking questions — something I’m guilty of, my default mode of “getting to know someone” — is that you stay in the head. Yes, questions can reach depth. But they’re just one doorway, and sometimes they don’t open.

There are other ways in: emotional, physical, experiential. A shared experience. A made-up game. Children know this instinctively — they find each other through play.

Perhaps we need to relearn that skill. To remember that sometimes, the fastest way to connect isn’t through talking at all, but through playing.