Growing Up With The Wild

By: Sportspitt

Fishing. Catching fireflies. Chasing frogs. Swinging on a bull rope. Building make-shift ramps with plywood and pretending to be Evel Knievel on our Huffys. These were the common activities that filled a normal afternoon in my childhood.

I learned about nature. I learned to appreciate the beauty and wonders, as well as to respect the dangers--of the outdoors.

And most importantly, I learned how to engage with others who were as desperate for something fun or exciting to fill their hours with as I was, without making or causing trouble.

Having no children of my own, I've never spent much time reflecting on the importance of all these things. It simply didn't occur to me. This was normal life for a child in my era, all of my friends grew up the same, and as adults we commonly share laughs over many of our childhood adventures.

But in speaking with a class of children recently, I realized that many of today's youth aren't sharing those experiences and it saddened me.

When I asked how the children, ages 11 to 13, spent their free time, almost all of the replies centered around electronic devices (T.V., the computer or game consoles) and shopping.

I was honestly dumbfounded. At that age I couldn't imagine sitting in-front of a screen for more than a couple of minutes, and I certainly never desired to spend time in a store or mall.

But the world has changed, and I'm not such a fuddy-duddy old man that I can't understand that fact, I just didn't realize how much it had changed.

When I asked if any of the children ever went to a park, or off on a hike through the woods, several told of how they're not allowed to go to the park in the neighborhoods, because their parents don't think it's safe.

Those parents are probably right in many neighborhoods, but that's no excuse for raising children in a bubble. Perhaps if more children were forced to turn off the electronics and experience the world around them, they wouldn't grow up to become the reasons that our neighborhood parks are no longer safe?

Maybe more would learn to appreciate the delicate balance of nature, and there would be better understanding out there of how even the slightest change in that balance can have major impacts.

I remember one summer as a child when I was fascinated by a small stream near my house that had thousands of tiny tadpoles in it. I knew they would eventually become frogs, and getting to watch the process had me running to the stream every morning.

Then one morning I got there and the stream was dry. Thousands of tiny tadpoles were laying dead in the mud. I walked up the hill where the stream flowed from to find out what happened, and discovered a large, old tree had fallen during the night and it created a damn across the stream.

In a matter of hours, an event as mundane as an old tree falling over, had completely changed an entire ecosystem and killed thousands of creatures. That was a strong lesson for me, and I'm a better, more attentive man today for having it.

Which makes me wonder, what vital lessons are children today missing out on while they mow down those zombies on the screen?

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