What a wonderful concept, IMAGINATION. It’s a word and concept that sometimes seems to be in short supply today, especially in our younger generation. Most of you are in the same age bracket as Beatrice and I so when i reminisce about childhood you probably know exactly what i mean.
As a kid i remember heading out he door at 8:30 in the morning for a day filled with adventure. Adventures that were fueled by imagination. A simple stick became a fishing pole to catch ORKA, a rifle to protect the town from desperados, a climbing stick needed to scale the tall mountains, a sword to fend off pirates that were boarding our sailing ship. As long as i showed up for dinner without too many bruises and not bleeding or missing any important limbs, all was right in the world. After dinner it was back out (but not off the block) to engage in some semi pseudo sports.
If you’ve never read “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard louv please do (but not before bedtime due to possible nightmares). If you have i’m sure the answer the one kid gave to why he didn’t want to play in the woods (because their are no plug out there) is as firmly burnt into your mind as it is mine. It’s a scary thought but a common one in today's youth. Of course the development of the 10 hour battery (like the one in the netbook i’m typing on) may relieve some of that stress.
I don’t know about you but when i was a kid a patch of woods (large forest to me) was one of the most magnetic places in kiddom. Open field? Instant playground with or without formal ‘play equipment’. All we needed was IMAGINATION…..
There are no pictures today. I’m adhere to our rule of not showing folks, faces, friends, or fiends (sometimes a difficult task). SOOOO you will have to use your IMAGINATION. Come on now, you know it’s in there somewhere. Check that dark, cobwebby cubbyhole back by your left ear…. That’s the one!!!!! Now turn it on and picture this!!!
As most of you know, we are on the road again. Beatrice keeps telling me it is a vacation. BUT being in New Jersey voluntarily is not my vision of a vaction, no matter how much IMAGINATION i apply. Yesterday morning we took Beatrice’s mom (Age 89 on Sept. 9, and still going strong) out for breakfast to her favorite Pancake place. The table next to us filled in with a family and one kid about 8 years old. The father had carried in a tablet ‘puter, so we just thought he was a fellow geek (like us). He proceeds to fire it up and then hand it to the kid, who mentally dissolves into the screen of what ever game it was.
A few minutes later another family comes in and after sitting the mother proceeds to hand the kid in the group (about 5 or 6) her ‘smart phone’.
My thought at that time was “Why do kids have to be electronically sedated????? Have we run out of Prozac???? (Possibility, since we are no longer allowed to reach over and smack a bratty kid).
I’m sure that most of you have observed the same scenario time and again.
There have been a large group of Asian folks staying at the hotel we are at. I discovered this morning that it is a “Korean Church Weekend Picnic”. It covers all age groups from grandparents to toddlers. This morning the lobby was filled with kids playing and patient watching adults. Amazingly i saw not one electronic gadget. Not even the adults were tethered to gizmos. Well i should correct that, because some of the kids were tethered. To each other ( NO NOT DUCT TAPED!!!!). The lead child would be holding one end of a jump rope (remember those????? Check the dusty cubby near your right earlobe). The other child was holding onto the other end of the jump rope being pulled. I have no idea what they IMAGINED they were doing, BUT THEY WERE HAVING FUN!!!!!! (Don’t let Ms Hannigan know).
IMAGINATION!!!!!! It does an old imagination ( and sometimes an over active one) good to know that IMAGINATION is still well and thriving!!!! Imagine that????
Grenville
