Kids, Just For Fun.

It was amazing how well expressed and timely the message was. Exactly what I needed. That is what brought me to the subject of, Kids,just for fun. How long has it been since we relished the dirt between our fingers and toes? Plucked worms and pill bugs and all manner of insects out from under rotting logs? How long has it been since we all laughed till our sides hurt? How long has it been since we used our heart for play instead of our heads? I sat here tonight wondering what do people really want to hear about? The same old rhetoric, the same old diatribe. There is definitely a time to discuss and debate the issues at hand. There is a time to seek answers. There is certainly a time to speak out. More so now then ever before. We face some tough times ahead. The warnings are all there. Canadian independance, sovereignty, the very way we have lived our lives is in jeopardy. Elections, trials, war, it all has its place. So to does the voice and laughter of a child. Pause for a second, if you will. Let me ask a very important question. What do you fight for, everyday? Is it for the love of a free country? In which your child and mine can run and laugh. Playing their games, with reckless abandon as only their unlimited imaginations can do? Is it to be able to pause and listen to that laughter? Letting it spill over your very being, lifting and soothing your cares away? Ever watch children at play? The seriousness with which they attack every make-believe entity their minds can produce. If only our politicians attacked issues with such fervor, think of how much change would actually take place. Listen in one day, while your children are hard at what they do best. Listen to the created worlds they have. The cities in the dirt, built with whatever is at hand. Even more so, listen to the story behind it. More often than not, that story contains a parody of the world around them. A verbalisation of the purest sense, unmarred by political influence. Kept clean by innocence. We often forget that children are keen to pick things up. Sometimes, those things are not what we would want them to pick up. Our attitude toward society, the world etal, is often mimicked by our little ones. For example, I have used the expression, "going to hell in a handbasket", at the absolute worst of times. I only realized this when my oldest boy, who was three and half at the time, came up to me with a pillow in his hand. When I asked him what it was for, he said it was to put in the basket so the world wouldn't have such a bumpy ride. Well, as you can imagine, I near fell off my chair. Now that same boy, is a towering fifteen year old, who came to me one day and said that the world is certainly going to hell in a handbasket, give me back the pillow damn it! But, this same boy, knows what is on the horizon, he knows whats up. Hes as prepared as he can be, and becomes more so everyday. Does it mean he dislikes the world he lives in? Not a chance! He is chomping at the bit to get a peice of this ball we live on. He wants to make a difference! Imagine if our politicians were like that! What kind of world will be left over for them when we are through with it? That is something that blazed a trail through my mind as I watched my younger sons squabbling outside about territorial rights or some such thing. After I separated them, it gave me pause for thought,just what it was they were fighting over. They have seven acres to play in. Hmmm, sound familiar? So, to end this rather different piece, I ask you,just for fun; What is it that you fight for? Is it for the kids? Or just for fun?