Yesterday, our courtyard mysteriously filled up with cardboard boxes and a city was built. Hideouts were constructed, alliances were formed, and a world was created. Legend tells of a kitchen that was installed, causing the appearance of the boxes, but the truth may never be known. Regardless, there was fun to be had, and it was had.
By the end of the day the boxes were gone, replaced by flatten strips and squares of cardboard. Where there had once been shape and form, there now sat a 2-dimensional wonderland of construct-able potential. A slide was designed out of the brown dream-stuff, and soon all of the children were flying down into the void on small cardboard squares of fantasy.
Other items were brought to the summit and it wasn’t long before we had ourselves a derby of danger, as the young humans sped at inhuman speeds directly toward the pavement on skateboards, go-karts, bicycles, and anything else that would carry them.
The large pieces of cardboard have morphed into smaller scraps of cardboard today, and by tomorrow they may well be confetti. This is not a problem. Smaller just means more: more playthings, more danger, more fun. The slide has shrunk, making it ever more perilous, and the remnants of a once-mighty city are now used for so much more. Yes, the occasional fight has broken out over just how best to use this precious resource, but there is more than enough to go around. There is plenty of imagination to sustain several games at once.
We recently purchased a new playground for the courtyard that should be arriving next week. I wonder why…