Edith Betts (1983) presented an Amy Morris Homans lecture entitled "Keepers of the Crown Jewels." During her lecture, Betts told a story of a queen who had some beautiful crown jewels. There were four that were particularly precious to her--a ruby, a pearl, a sapphire, and an emerald. As the story evolved, the queen noticed that after she left the jewels in the safe keeping of a servant, occasionally, some of the jewels would disappear. So, the queen took these four most precious ones and sewed them into her garment for truly safe keeping. Betts stated that as professionals, physical educators have their own crown jewels with which they are entrusted. They are play, ethical behavior, teaching, and freedom. In this article, the author focuses on Betts' first jewel, play, and asserts that play and the meaning of playing in its various movement forms (play, games, dance, sport, and perhaps exercise) have been diminishing as critical elements in the physical education/kinesiology field. In their attempts to objectify and study play, game, dance, sport, and exercise, physical educators have gained great knowledge about those elements and the potential long term benefits of these activities on human bodies. However, in the process, they seem to have forgotten about the immediate benefit of doing these activities--the joy, the challenge, the risk, the fun. These are the elements that are intrinsic or internal to the activities themselves. The author is making a plea for physical educators to restore the centrality of playing, dancing, gaming, sporting, and exercising as autotelic and meaningful experiences in their lives and in their profession. The author suggests that by turning their attention to the subjective experiences and helping people experience moving as an end in itself that: (1) physical educators may indeed increase the possibilities that the long-term health and fitness goals may be reached more effectively; but (2) and more significantly, people will be opened up to a quality of life experience that needs no more justification than what is gained in the immediate experiencing. People have always wanted, as much as possible, to lead pleasurable, fun-filled lives. Playing, gaming, dancing, sporting, and exercising are a part of the good life. As a field of disciplines, physical educators have much to contribute to that good life. But if people are not playing, gaming, dancing, sporting and exercising, then all the knowledge physical educators have and all the knowledge they share has no meaningful value.