After a weekend of rain and some of the worst flooding my town has seen in years, I rode my bike past Mountainview Park... the site of some good old fashioned memories of my childhood. The park playground has since been made safer for children with plastic amusements taking the place of the old metal fort with the pirate chains that I used to climb. There were pitched fingers and scrapes and bruises that were just part of the rough and tumble play ground experience back then. At 10 years old you no longer required the accompaniment of your parents... in fact that was considered uncool to have them hanging around. We were brave little daredevils who would play for hours using only our imaginations and lots of energy. There were territorial battles amongst kids from different neighborhoods... nothing serious, as we all knew who the serial bullies were and our intuition guided us from receiving any unnecessary harm from them. I looked at the current fort with the caution tape around it and wondered who would have waded into the flood waters to put it in place... I mean the only people who would not realize the danger in playing there now would probably not be able to read or understand the word, and a parent would have to be present as kids don't go anywhere without their parents in tow now.
Yes, the world is changing... freedom and a sense of adventure are slowing being replaced by neuroticism and fear... and Nature it seems is just playing along.
