Pat (Rose) Farrington

Pat (Rose) Farrington (image from Slide 42 in New Games Slide Show)

 

Have a great idea? Want to see it spread? Pass your game changer along to a community organizer.

 

If people think of Stewart Brand as the father of New Games, Pat (now Rose) Farrington is the Earth Mother. For New Games to grow into a movement, rather than a one-time, interesting afternoon of fun, required committed players—lots and lots of different players. Pat was the magnet that gathered and organized those players.

 

From the first New Games Tournament through the third, this nurturing, grassroots, activist-for-play was the center around which a group of disparate characters became a community of players. Always supportive, she provided permission and empowered them to add their own ideas to grow both New Games and the New Games Foundation.

 

Pat Farrington with an early New Games Advisory Board (image from Slide 45 in New Games Slide Show)

 

Nelson Mandela said that being a shepherd taught him how to lead from behind. More than anyone I have known, Pat embodies this concept. In the upstairs loft at the SF Ecology Center on Columbus Avenue, as Executive Director, her main role seemed to be that of official permission giver to volunteers and staff who were excited to go out and try new ideas. After listening, Pat would respond with an encouraging, "That sounds great. Try it."

 

Pat Farrington leading groups in Pyramid Building (image from Slide 169 in New Games Slide Show)

 

At the Third Tournament in Golden Gate Park, Pat established an onsite, central headquarters under a large cypress tree. She was there for most of the day, so we always knew where to find her. She let games leaders do their own thing, knowing they would figure out what was needed and the event would grow to become whatever it was meant to. Our unofficial Head Referee was a constant, reassuring presence, graciously guiding and passing on the spotlight to the many New Games Referees to lead individual activities while acting as a resource to all.

 

Play Community Organizing was a favorite game of hers, and she played it so everyone could participate, everyone could win, and everyone could have fun—together. A New Games Festival with a thousand people engaged in dozens of games is a play group writ large. On an even larger scale, this global thinker looked at organizing local communities—and eventually the whole world—as a great game. She worked to bring all parts of a community into the game as players, whether they brought, funding, supplies, advertising, or (especially) people, from pre-schools to senior centers, and everyone in between. Even if they couldn't participate in the actual event, local groups could still contribute to the game and be a member of the Play Community.

 

When asked about his greatest single invention, Steve Jobs didn't choose one single device; rather, he considered it was the creation of Apple, itself. In a similar vein Pat's greatest game might have been the creation and early guidance of the New Games Foundation. After getting this movement established in San Francisco, she spread the ideas to Australia, and beyond.

 

Results of reaching out to let others share. A list of community co-sponsors of the Third New Games Tournament in Golden Gate Park (image from Slide 114 in New Games Slide Show)

 

On a personal note, in my early twenties, it was Pat who taught me—and I'm sure many others—how to give and receive great, nourishing hugs.

 

Bill Michaelis added the following.

Dear folks, "just get on the bus¦.we're going to build a play community¦"

The Whole Earth Mother has died and I am sad¦ She was the one (as you may remember), who said in the first New Games Book, "Games are not so much a way to compare abilities as a way to celebrate them¦ I felt that by re-examining the basic idea of play we could involve families, groups, and individuals in a joyous recreation experience that creates a sense of community and personal expression¦. People could center on the joy of playing, cooperating, and trusting rather than striving to win¦"

I was inspired by her crazy enveloping spirit¦ A reflection and creation of the times we were living in¦

Thoughts of peace and healing to her family and friends¦

I was blessed to know her¦ Rest in peace, Earth Mother¦ Thank you¦.

Bill Michaelis

 

John O'Connell added the following.

Had I not met Pat when I did, my life would certainly have been far different—but I am certain not better. I will be forever grateful to Pat for giving me the opportunity of making my journey through life more fun, exciting, enlightening, enthusiastic and inspirational. Pat shaped NG to be much different than Stewart's original conception (WWIII 2.0/Soft War,) which was great in and of itself. Pat, among other things, added to the 'layer cake' by:

 

1. Play, in many ways Opening up the Tournament/Festival and NG overall to other forms of play and games (all forms of play and games really). I think this brought the heart of NG into being about 'Play' over and above getting in touch with our own aggressive/combative spirits viz a viz Soft War. (Which I loved 'playing' & Playing Hard at—as did Stewart—but I don't think that was central, or the 'Why' for Stewart. Pat 'grokked' that Play was essential. She added it into the batter for her layer and brought it into the New Games Tournament with her Renaissance Faire crew. That inclusiveness invited a far greater group of people into early NG, folks such as Burton, Bernie, Bill Michaelis, most all of the women, (Marcelle was definitely there for the Soft War!) including Pat herself, who joined the community and stayed, etc., etc., (also to include probably most people who became part of the NG Community).

 

2. Maybe even more important to Pat, personally, was her recognition of how People Playing Together/NG inevitably begat the creation of Community. I think Community was the 'Why' for Pat. She was always about Community. Building Community, locally and globally, through and around NG, was what she really cared the most about, especially, building The Whole One World Community. I'm sure she felt that NG was the greatest vehicle ever created for growing Community. (Later in life, Todd tells me that, Pat had an idea for Tree Planting as her new vehicle for growing the One World Community.) In the process of using NG as a tool for creating Community, she gave birth to the NG Community, which eventually included all of us and millions more!

 

3. Pat dug the foundation for the NGF, which enabled the development of NGF, the NG Training Program and the growth of the NG Community. As far as I know, the idea of NGF, NG as a Not-for-Profit entity and making it so, came from Pat. It could well have gone a different direction. I don't know all the details, but from a few drive-by glances, it seemed that Pat, Burton, Ray and others involved at the time did the work over a year or more to create NGF and get its non-profit legal status. Having the Foundation as a structure, and NFP as the form, really enabled everything else to evolve in the way and as inclusively as it did. Her work there created a kind of trellis, or one of those tomato thingies—providing the framework and stability for NG to stay upright and keep alive and growing—while allowing the freedom and openness to allow it to grow out in all directions.

 

4. Last insight, (which just Dawn[ed] on [my] Marblehead. [Old New England joke. Maybe Steve gets it!)

 

Pat also made the deal with Andrew to create the New Games Book. I'm not sure exactly how it happened, or that it was the best possible 'financial deal' for the Foundation, (Andy/Headlands made the 'Big Bucks' from the sale of several million books. (But, hey, puka-puka!]) But, the Book(s) was a major element in the development and success of NG and thanks to Andy, it came out (different than what I think Pat or I envisioned, but) really well and served the purpose we needed it for, far beyond expectations. If it had not existed, we would have had to invent it.

 

For me personally, 'The Book' brought me back into NG. (Which I thought would be the Last Will and Testament of what we had done. Pat asked me if I would become the 'NGF Editor' for the book (She oversold it, per usual!) and write up the Games' Rules/Descriptions (also including finding, fixing, or creating quite a few [All of which was harder than it looks, really! But for $4.50 an hour, such a deal!! {Still, I took a big pay cut, down to $0/per ever, to become Co-Director with Burton, also at $0, so Barbara and eventually Trina could get paid (($Next to Nothing/per ever.))}]) But, I diverge, though it brings back some fond memories.

 

For those of you who didn't have the opportunity to meet her, Pat was definitely one of those 'larger than life characters' (no pun intended!) that Fortune brings into our lives on occasion, if we're lucky. She was not 'beautiful' in any conventional way and she dressed like your 'Hippy Grandmother' who worked at the Thrift Store, but she had a certain glamour to her, in the old Celtic meaning of the term, (She may have been an Arthurian Druid-Fairy!) some kind of a shine/sheen/light/radiance/sparkle of enthusiasm about her. It was sort of magical. She was part Saleslady, Con-artist, Gifted Charmer, Angel, Pixie, Earth-Mother-Goddess, Joker and Crazy Aunt, who was really fun to be around. The party was always wherever Pat was.

 

In most ways, I think Pat, "Led, by not Leading." Very Zen. Actually, more 'Very Magical Mystical Mysterious.' She somehow drew people to her, or we were drawn by some serendipitous energy, and she somewhat conveyed something, ephemeral, (and usually vague and amorphous) about What was going to happen, or 'supposed' to happen, or you imagined was supposed to happen—Until you started off to do What you thought you were supposed to do, only to realize as if coming out of a spell, that you had no idea exactly What you were supposed to do, let alone, How you were supposed to do it—and she was nowhere to be found, or way too far away to ask—o you just made it up and somehow got people to make it up with you, kind of like a game you were making up together. (Does that sound familiar? New Games in a nutshell?)

 

And/But, she never once came around and told you that you were doing it wrong. (Not that she would even know.) In fact, generally, she never came around at all.

 

At times, during an event, you would see her far off; Out of the way of things, talking and laughing with someone, or just standing there by herself, watching, smiling, the silly-fun-ness of it all, enjoying the show, glowing, being beatific. I guess she was magically manifesting the event to be going the way it was going. Playfully. Perfectly.

 

At the end of the event, she usually told you how amazing you were, which felt true, because by then you felt Amazing and the event had been Amazing. She "Led, without Leading.

"  

Pat was always exuberant. Frequently maddening. Often mystifying. Energizing and empowering. You wonder what we would have done without her.  

Then we actually found out. Pat flew off to Australia to begin a New Games project there. Or, flew the coop, before the cops showed up. She disappeared, in a swirl of pixie dust, or absconded, with most of the games gear and the young Foundation $70,000 in debt. Mostly everyone was pretty pissed off at her then and she never was a part of the official Foundation again.

 

Burton, after pretty much holding it/NG all together and keeping the newborn alive for what seemed like a long time, was pretty much left holding the bag. (Full of what doesn't need to be mentioned.)

 

To his eternal credit, Burton's response was to ask me, "Should we try and see if we can make this work? We can't screw it up, because it's totally screwed already!" It definitely was, but with that brilliant Call to Action, I thought, "WtF; Why the F not!?!"

 

So, we did. We made it up. And, with Barbara and Dale and Trina and Todd and Bernie and Pam and the whole motley crew and ensuing cast of characters who showed up to play along and become New Games Leaders, we all kept on making it up as we went along. And it was Amazing!

 

With the wisdom of hindsight (from about 30 sec. ago,) it occurs to me, that Pat's disappearing, far-off, to Australia, and out of sight (whether we, or she, knew it) was maybe one more of her magical Lead by abdicating Leadership tricks.

 

If so, it worked. And it was an Amazing! run (of what Burton called Our illegal Craps game).

 

Wherever Pat is, I hope she realizes what an amazing thing she did and what she accomplished.

 

I hope she and Burton and Bernie too, get to be with each other, I hope it's Amazing! I hope they're having fun. They'd have to be!

 

And I hope they realize how Amazing! they are.

 

Jonh O'Connell