Mystery
1
This is a difficult idea to express; however, I’m going to take my time and at least try to explain.
I grew up in the 1950s–yes, I’m a baby-boomer–and 1(I lived on a dead end street; 2)nobody on our street had extra money for toys, games, and amusements.
Furthermore, our mothers were all at home and every mother had the same ideas on child-rearing. We had to be outside playing except when we were at school,rain was falling, or one of us was ill. Even in the snow we threw snowballs at each other.
Combining all of these factors will bring the reader to a conclusion; the bunch of kids I grew up with were thrown onto our own resources to pass away the hours out of doors. Because of this we were exposed to the natural world. We didn’t look at the world through a window, then turn back to playing video games. My mother–all the mothers on Shady Avenue Ext.–would be shocked at the way in which children are raised today.
What am I driving at? I do not mean to preach. But having few toys and being outside so much, we noticed things. Odd things in nature, for example. There was a weed called plantain that grew in the strips of land between the sidewalk and the street. From a three or four leaf base a stalk grew that had easily detachable seeds. We moved up and down the street like a little tribe of hunters and gatherers, collecting seeds. Our mothers gave us cleaned out mayonnaise jars in which we stored the seeds. The seeds were the center of our games of “store,” “farmers,” and “playing house.”
This is only one example of what our world was like then. Where does the mystery come in? I don’t like to use psychobabble terms but none of our mothers were “helicopter mothers.” We were free to roam as long as we didn’t cross Beechwwood Boulevard. So if you are free to roam, imagine things, and make things up, the mystery of the natural world becomes accessable. This leads to a deeper and more profound sense of the Other World.
lgmwriting 