Children Playing...

Posted by Tamara Canup Graves

It's curious to me how unappreciated the art of play is. Even with my parents' many flaws and mistakes, they enforced one strict rule: outside play and use of one's imagination is always more important than television, video games, and computer time. My siblings and I used to spend hours outside in our yard making up adventures and games with each other. Our close bond as children was a direct result of this sort of interaction. But recently I've realized how few children these days share those same experiences.

I'm making a slide show to one of my favorite songs, Rita Springer's "I Have To Believe". I had decided to show different images of children playing and laughing and the like. When I Googled the words "children play", I was disappointed with what I found. Very VERY few images of children laughing and holding hands and running and jumping and PLAYING. The majority of the pictures contained children on video game systems or computers. And not surprisingly, the only real play going on was between children in impoverished countries. Countries where most parents do not have the means to buy these addictive technologies. But even in bare feet and ragged clothes these children possessed more than so many of our spoiled American children. The smiles were genuine. The joy was intense. I could almost hear them laughing and giggling. And my heart mourned for the loss of those days of play. My heart mourns for the lack of appreciation of human contact. How easy it is to substitute real relationships and real intimacy for flashing colors and bright lights. And it hit me that these photographs only reflect the real problems with our human condition.

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