There is a metal piece of playground equipment at a spot we less casually frequent, that mimicked what I used to consider “the spinning wheel of death.” You know this vomit machine, this whirling dervish, propelled by all manner of child-sized leg power, spinning this contraption while others hold on for dear life.
Now that it’s 2024, it seems the equipment has been modified. Now, the base sits flush with the ground so that if/when children are flung from it, the threat of breaking a limb has been vanquished. There is no longer a considerable fall, which, in the opinion of some, means the real sport of this thing has been irradicated.
Today’s playground visit yielded the cries of a young blonde-haired girl with pink sunglasses and hair longer than I’ve seen on a child. She shouted: “ You have three choices! Sit up, sit down, or die!”
I live for such utterances. These exclamations, these exaggerations that, upon further analysis, are about as accurate a description of truth as possible. Who better than to shed words of wisdom than a hyped 10-year-old with multi-colored fairy hair strands, and a little brother she consistently shoves around throughout the day like a rag doll that whines back from time to time, with little to no effect?
Isn’t all of life a series of choices in which we must sit up, sit down, or agree simply to die?
The kid she was yelling at chose to sit down, but he remained on the ride, committed to see it through, or so it seemed. It’s also likely he was too scared to get off.
Such is life, as well.
I got to wondering if everything is merely a metaphor for something else. Always. Over and over. Forever and ever. Can’t we compare almost everything back to the simplicity of what life is and why it holds any meaning?
Others might call me crazy. Why seek meaning in everything. Please, get over yourself, Kim, they might say.
But I sat pleasantly, having discovered shade thanks to my having remembered a folding chair. (Sidebar: how can a park grant such a disservice as to cement into the ground all of its benches nowhere near shade? A question for too many parties, perhaps: the municipality, the fundraisers, the designer, the administrators who approved each of the decisions made in the making of this park, etc etc.)
I digress…. shall I regress? Is that a thing? I don’t think it makes sense here, but it sounded funny….so I’ll keep it.
The playground chatter brought peace upon me. I couldn’t help but smile, grateful for the wisdom of babes. A calming wave washed over me and I nearly laughed out loud, pleasantly surprised to be reminded of life’s simplest choices: I can sit up, sit down, or die.
In my case, I’m staring down the barrel of a time of transition (can you tell I don’t much care for change?) I need to make some choices this year that I haven’t been faced with for many. I’m entering the water slowly, warming up to some options while discarding others. I’ll envisioning all kinds of scenarios in my mind. I may get tossed from the playground, lose a limb or die…..
But the truth is simple. There are only 3 choices, and so long as we’re being honest, there’s really only 2.
4 the Love of Peace 