The Flying Raccoon
Promoting Lifelong PlayThe Flying Raccoon is on a mission to reintegrate Play into the lives of all adults, and believes that in the process we can recapture a bit of the humanity that has been lost.
Play.
We all love to do it, and we’re all naturals at play. Somewhere along the line we were all told that it has to be left behind in childhood.
The Flying Raccoon believes that each time someone:
- …takes a decision in the boardroom that maximises the bottom-line but compromises the environment…
- …or can’t bear to get up in the morning to go to work…
- …or chooses the same meal in the same restaurant as they always do…
that they’ve taken this message too seriously. Let’s bring play back into people’s experience and in doing so give everyone fuller lives.
100 Days of Play
The blogFull Blog
Let's grab a coffee together
Available to chat / play / drink / eatWho is the Flying Raccoon?
A bit about me and how I came to Play
Ben Ross
Chief Raccoon
Sorry – I can’t promise my hair will do this when we meet. This was in Martin Creed’s Balloons room when it was at The Hayward Gallery on London’s Southbank. It was surprisingly painful when hairs strayed into the path of the knots and became entangled. The exquisite joy of play!
Favourite Things
- Pinball
- Adventure playgrounds
- Water, in all its forms
Background
- BBC
- TV / Online / Editorial / Curation
- Executive Coaching
- Lifelong Fun-Finder
- Explorer
- Lover of Life
Vital Statistics
- Name: Ben Ross
- Species: Human Being
- Citizenship: The World (via the UK)
Who I’d Like To Meet
- People who play
- People who don’t play (yet!)
- Teachers of play
- People with wisdom
- People with childlike innocence
- You. Yes, you!
What's a Flying Raccoon?
How I came to find my spirit animal
The Esalen Institute
The perfect place to connect with your spirit
September 2016, the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California: I’m doing a workshop with the wonderful Lissa Rankin. She tells us one night to pay attention to signs of our spirit animal.
Mysterious Creature
An animal I’ve never seen before appears
“Cute”, I think, and want to approach the animal brazenly wandering around on the tables outside the lodge. “Don’t,” cautions another onlooker, “it’ll f*** you up!”. My spirit animal?
Next Morning
In the hot springs, a majestic flight
A bird appears on the horizon, a foot above the water. It flies this height, as they do, across the entire width of the horizon. Could the bird be my spirit animal?
A Moment of Enlightenment
Writing my morning pages, and contemplating
The truth comes to me. The raccoon is my spirit animal. The bird is my spirit animal. I am immutably drawn to both. The Flying Raccoon has shown itself to me, and guides me in Play.
