Outside The Box

Jean-Jacques Rousseau once said, ~You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again.~ Let me ask you this question, when you were a kid and had absolutely nothing to do did you find ways to keep yourself entertained or did you need to spend your parent's money in order to do that? Growing up back in the day, you were considered a mini-MacGyver of sorts if you were able to think up something out of nothing and turn it into a game to keep not only yourself entertained, but also your friends as well. Unfortunately, kids today find that in order to have fun and be thoroughly entertained money is needed, which shows they're lacking the creative ability to tap into their imagination.

Without a doubt, one of the things that was considered fun back in the day was drifting off into your own little world and thinking about something random such as candy or cake. For a little kid, the thought of candy/cake would put a smile on one's face to where he or she possibly does their own dance because they're so excited. Let me tell you something, candy or cake would put a smile on anybody's face giving you a rush of excitement and yet there comes a point where as a grown adult you try to go back to that child-like way of thinking, but somewhere along the line you end up going through a timeline of seemingly unfortunate realities to worry about such as the calories being consumed, getting cavities, possibly losing teeth, going to the dentist, having your teeth cleaned, getting braces, spending tons of money, going into debt, etc. the list goes on and on.

Oftentimes, saying or making up a word or a phrase for that matter can keep a child busy for quite some time and I say this because I work with/around young kids. If you think about it, you can be amazed how repeating one word or phrase can be endless amounts of fun to pass the time on a sometimes boring day, which can be seen as cute by some, most, or all adults. When you observe a young child doing that, they seem to have great joy in just repeatedly saying something that can have different variations to it, not just in the sound, but also in the emphasis of what is being said as well. Yet, what can be seen as cute can sometimes be truly annoying after a while because if you've spent enough time around young kids those words can be tortuous to the point where it not only sticks in your head, but you end up repeating it yourself inevitably driving you nuts.

For the question can be asked, do you think playing with a simple ordinary box that you pack items in can be viewed as a way to escape reality? From a kid's perspective you most certainly can as they have the ability to build up an imaginary world filled with joy and wonderment in a single box or a group of boxes that can be made into either a fort, castle, or a series of connecting tunnels to crawl through. As an adult though, you can find it truly difficult to play in them especially in the connecting tunnels of boxes because your body doesn't work the way it used to as your knees and back tend to get hurt. In any case, whether it was playing cowboys and indians, king of the castle, or just crawling around in the dark like a crazed lunatic, playing in boxes back then was and probably still is something to behold.

In retrospect, it seems as if today's generation of kids complain that there is nothing to do and if someone suggests an activity that involves the outdoors they whine that it's either too hot or it's too stupid to play. You see, its today's generation of kids that have the good life and everything they have such as the pool in the backyard to swim in, the expensive video game system(s) to play with, the ATV to ride on, etc. all within their fingertips and yet they're not even content with that. For many of us, fun wasn't always something that you could buy, watch, and/or put coins in, it was about using your own imagination to bring to life what you saw in your head or around you and make it a reality. In the end, you sometimes have to go outside the box to create/do something that hopefully is entertaining and if it's successful then that's when the real fun begins.