59. Children's Games in Street and Playground

    Children's Games in Street and Playground

 

"I asked him, 'Do you know how to play Red Rover?' and he said,

 'Is that for Playstation or Gameboy?'"

 

Folkloric truism: children's rhymes

and games--of all our culture's customs, these

were slowest to change--were learned word for word,

word by word--known, as the saying went,

by heart. Were known by everyone, everyone knew

that any mistake must certainly be corrected

by everyone else,  no question whether what had

to be right had meaning. Because because.

      But now

we see the jungle--the "mighty jungle,","deepest,"

"red in tooth and claw," original

of all the other "jungles out there," ruled

by rote, not right--was only the rainforest,

which is to say, a desert lurking beneath

as little as less than an inch of fertile dirt,

everything else an incomprehensible knot

of sap and blood precariously perched

like one of those rare parrots, which, when pirated

elsewhere and told words, seems to speak.

 

 

note: "Children's Games in Street and Playground" is the title of a book by Iona and Peter Opie 

 

 

 

Comments

[kids clothing]

Kids nowadays choose to play video games rather than outdoor activities. It would make them unhealthy as ever.