The World is a Playground
The world is a playground for children. If it is true that we are in a kind of a womb during this journey, not unlike our mother’s womb, then we are in some kind of a dream state, and the world as we perceive it is not real. While we’re in this dream state, we are, essentially, children. We are children of the creator and as such we are in process, moving toward maturity, the entire time we are in this world. The world is therefore full of children, the blind leading the blind, and that’s why everything about this world seems so childish.
What do children like? Well, let’s see. First of all, they like lots of violence. As a teacher and principal, I can vouch for the fact that violence is at the heart of this dream world that we live in. Kids really like blood, gore, and lots of noise, and this is why Halloween is the most popular holiday in the year for kids and also a lot of adults I know, including me. Halloween is a scary holiday with lots of blood and hatchets and skulls and blood oozing out of mouths. Kids love scatological humor and pratfalls, and they love to see other people get in trouble. And there’s the world, all of it, right there, because it’s for us kids.
God has given us this amazing diversion, which you get to take seriously, or not, depending on where you are in your journey.
When you reach the idiot stage, as I have, the whole thing is ludicrous, absurd, and delightfully funny. In fact, one of the side effects of growing older is your quickened sense of irony, until it dawns on you that it’s all irony, and that none of it can be taken seriously. I guess that’s about the time they lock you up, because you spend all your time laughing at everything. I’m pretty much there now. I find myself laughing in public at times when nobody else is laughing and I catch myself thinking, “Oh, come on, people, lighten up. This is hilarious.” Of course, the rest of the kids, who are still taking it all very seriously -- or at least pretending to take it seriously -- get highly offended if you laugh at stuff like war and morality and obeying the law.
But it’s a world of kids, and I can handle it since I know that Big Daddy is right here, unseen but ever-present, keeping the whole thing going, smiling as we go through our little antics and tantrums, because he just loves us all so much. I can handle it, especially as I lie here in my little garden, my little piece of paradise, my promise that we will soon leave this trance-like state, be back in the real world, and really start to have some fun again.
What do children like? Well, let’s see. First of all, they like lots of violence. As a teacher and principal, I can vouch for the fact that violence is at the heart of this dream world that we live in. Kids really like blood, gore, and lots of noise, and this is why Halloween is the most popular holiday in the year for kids and also a lot of adults I know, including me. Halloween is a scary holiday with lots of blood and hatchets and skulls and blood oozing out of mouths. Kids love scatological humor and pratfalls, and they love to see other people get in trouble. And there’s the world, all of it, right there, because it’s for us kids.
God has given us this amazing diversion, which you get to take seriously, or not, depending on where you are in your journey.
When you reach the idiot stage, as I have, the whole thing is ludicrous, absurd, and delightfully funny. In fact, one of the side effects of growing older is your quickened sense of irony, until it dawns on you that it’s all irony, and that none of it can be taken seriously. I guess that’s about the time they lock you up, because you spend all your time laughing at everything. I’m pretty much there now. I find myself laughing in public at times when nobody else is laughing and I catch myself thinking, “Oh, come on, people, lighten up. This is hilarious.” Of course, the rest of the kids, who are still taking it all very seriously -- or at least pretending to take it seriously -- get highly offended if you laugh at stuff like war and morality and obeying the law.
But it’s a world of kids, and I can handle it since I know that Big Daddy is right here, unseen but ever-present, keeping the whole thing going, smiling as we go through our little antics and tantrums, because he just loves us all so much. I can handle it, especially as I lie here in my little garden, my little piece of paradise, my promise that we will soon leave this trance-like state, be back in the real world, and really start to have some fun again.
posted by Old Timer at 7:17 AM
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