I had the opportunity to watch a short documentary this week titled, “Where will the children play?”.  The premise was that children need more outdoor, unstructured play time in order to commune and connect with nature and their own inner creativity.  I agree with the premise entirely, but the argument was oddly constructed and almost contradictory.  The writers spent a good part of the film demonizing suburbs and likened mini-vans to cages on wheels.  Not only was the point made that kids would be better off in gang-riddled inner-city neighborhoods than in the suburbs, but it ended with an expert stating if children don’t develop their own imaginations, they won’t be able to think for themselves.  And if they don’t think for themselves, how will they know to rise up, should the country ever fall into Totalitarianism?  I’m so not joking.  My friend Jill and I laughed so hard I thought we were going to get kicked out the meeting.  Put down your Crayolas sons, and pick up your bayonets.  It’s 2010 and we’re going to need some Minutemen.  Totalitarians are at the door!

So here are my caged, minivan driven children…destined to fail in their disconnected suburban lives, lacking a real connection with nature.  This picture was taken at Hour #4 of playing outside, and as you can see, we don’t have “real” nature in the suburbs.  Woe is me…they suffer.  They had to be stripped on the back porch and carried to the shower due to an overdose of mud.  We couldn’t even give them a bath until they were showered first.  It’s terrible.  It’s like, how will they ever thrive under these conditions?

At the end of the documentary, a very enlightened father of beautifully articulate children made a statement I found to be quite insightful.  To paraphrase, he stated that when children have the time to be in and to contemplate nature, they see that all things have a place: the trees, the flowers, the animals.  And that gives children the innate sense, even if only subconsciously, that there is a place for them in this world as well.  Isn’t that the loveliest thing you’ve heard all week?  The world is as it should be, and there is a place for you here.  If you need us, we’re out back in the garden…