Why do we play?

Because we must! There is no choice, I have a musical soul and to not in some way make music is to deny myself. I must sing, play, hum, tap, maybe even write music. Through my life the expression of my musical soul has varied. I grade school I sang, then in 4th grade I began learning clarinet (with 5 kids if my parents didn't already own it I couldn't learn it). Only boy clarinetist in school and if while practicing my brothers and sister came to listen practice became long spontaneous compositions. Oh, what examples of second year clarinet virtuosity! :lol: By high school I'd lost the clarinet but I wandered through the band room one day and was corralled by the band teacher. He needed a percussionist (yeah right, he needed someone big enough to carry the bass drum :) ) So I marched and played concerts bass drum & cymbals, sang in church and in my car. Then a car accident with a friend damaged my vocal chords. I had one of the pieces of cartilage that hold the ends of the vocal chords pull loose. At the time the specialists told me there really wasn't anything to do for it. I lost most of my breath control and a great deal of range. It took a couple years before I could even begin to sing again and even then it was a bit odd. I'd be switching octaves in the middle of a phrase and breath control was (and still is) a problem.
A few years go by and my brother in law asks if I want to learn to play bass. He needs a bass player for his band and his brother has a little diamond shaped bass for sale for $10. A couple weeks of practice and I'm on stage nervously trying to follow but I LOVED it. After a few years I could even sing a little harmony without my fingers forgetting what they were doing. So after a dozen years or so we all had marriages and families and we decided to stop booking gigs.
I sold of my amps and speakers but kept my basses then, when my mother died about a year ago she left me a little money and when I thought about what I should do with it, music was the answer. I bought a little bass amp and started playing and singing some old songs. Now singing and playing bass without guitar is a bit odd but it was good practice.
So while I've played bass for many years I'd never owned or played guitar and I decided it was time to learn so, for my birhday this year I bought a cheap 6 string acoustic and I play at least 6 days a week 1 to 2 hours a day. If I hear a song I like, new or old, I look for a chord sheet and try to learn it. The tough ones I set aside until my skill level is better. Music makes me better, calmer, happier, and more at peace with myself and the world. That's why we (I) play! 8)
Oh, and I'm afraid my guitar love is just getting started. I already think I want another better acoustic and I'd like to get an electric to play around with and, well, you know, I think I need a long scale dobro bass guitar for those campfire jams. :D I'm afraid that one might cost some serious bucks though.

Since I posted this question, I feel that I need to pop back in on the discussion. The answers so far seem to fall into these categories (I may have missed some):

It's cool.
We have friends who play and we enjoy playing with them.
We can't help playing. Something inside us makes us play.
We're talented and get positive feedback from playing.
Having some adversity in our lives makes us even more dedicated to playing.
Playing relieves stress.
Guitar is portable.
We love music.
We love the sound of the guitar.
It's fun.
It's creative.
It's challenging.

I've got to say that all of these apply to me, except that right now I don't have friends who play. That was, however, a very big influence on me during about my first five years of learning. Since we are willing to put in the time and effort to get better, some combination of these motivators works for us. It doesn't work for everyone who ever picked up a guitar or learned to play another instrument.

Well Renee, we're your friends and we do play. We're just not close enough to jam with you in person.

Since I posted this question, I feel that I need to pop back in on the discussion. The answers so far seem to fall into these categories (I may have missed some):

It's cool.
We have friends who play and we enjoy playing with them.
We can't help playing. Something inside us makes us play.
We're talented and get positive feedback from playing.
Having some adversity in our lives makes us even more dedicated to playing.
Playing relieves stress.
Guitar is portable.
We love music.
We love the sound of the guitar.
It's fun.
It's creative.
It's challenging.

I've got to say that all of these apply to me, except that right now I don't have friends who play. That was, however, a very big influence on me during about my first five years of learning. Since we are willing to put in the time and effort to get better, some combination of these motivators works for us. It doesn't work for everyone who ever picked up a guitar or learned to play another instrument.

You should tape yourself some chord progressions and lead to them, I know its not the same but thats what I do when I get anxious because I want to play with somebody ( anybody please!!!)...xD