You get boys outside in nature and after 6-8 hours they're pretending they're frogs or bears rather than Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader with light sabers. I say 6-8 hours because yesterday my son was playing with a friend at the Redwood Bowl in the Oakland Hills. After 2 hours he was still using a pistol-like stick with beautiful green lichen as a laser. My 4 year old draws a lot of aliens at school with laser see-all eyes inspired by his cousin who made a robot with see-all eyes designed to save the environment. I know his cousin isn't the only one influencing him; my own time spent here on this lap top, and the time I let the boys play on pbs kids.org contributes to their point of view: that the fantastical omnipotence of robots and futuristic objects trumps all. We love this stuff-- at least a lot of us do. An iPhone can feel more alive than something really alive like a stick or a towering redwood forest. I wish sometimes I could sail away on a small boat with the boys for a year and a day to where the wild things are. Not because I want them to know how to becalm them but because I want them to know that sense of belonging and being awake in wildness. In a way a hurricane or a Nor'easter wakes us.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Are We Down to Earth Enough?
You get boys outside in nature and after 6-8 hours they're pretending they're frogs or bears rather than Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader with light sabers. I say 6-8 hours because yesterday my son was playing with a friend at the Redwood Bowl in the Oakland Hills. After 2 hours he was still using a pistol-like stick with beautiful green lichen as a laser. My 4 year old draws a lot of aliens at school with laser see-all eyes inspired by his cousin who made a robot with see-all eyes designed to save the environment. I know his cousin isn't the only one influencing him; my own time spent here on this lap top, and the time I let the boys play on pbs kids.org contributes to their point of view: that the fantastical omnipotence of robots and futuristic objects trumps all. We love this stuff-- at least a lot of us do. An iPhone can feel more alive than something really alive like a stick or a towering redwood forest. I wish sometimes I could sail away on a small boat with the boys for a year and a day to where the wild things are. Not because I want them to know how to becalm them but because I want them to know that sense of belonging and being awake in wildness. In a way a hurricane or a Nor'easter wakes us.
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