Aug. 12, 2006 - 12:46 MDT

MAKES SENSE

Jim Stiles, publisher of the Canyon Country Zephyr in Moab, Utah and a contributor to Writers on the Range (a service of High Country News ((hcn.org)) in Paonia, Colorado) Has an article in this mornings paper that brings out my feelings almost to a tee. Herewith quoted in full:

NATURE DEFICIT RUINING OUR KIDS

"No matter how old I live to be, there wil never be a place so full of mystery and adventure as a place of my childhood called The Woods. The stories that grew out of those trees still kindle powerful feelings, even after all these years. My friends and I knew the place was haunted. It had no boundaries, and in our 10-year-old minds, it went on forever."

"Jump ahead a few decades to a familiar topic: the commercialization of wilderness. What created the demand for such a cornucopia of sporting gear and plannned "adventure activities" ?

"There was a time when all a guy needed to go for a hike was a reasonably comfortable pair of shoes and an army surplus canteen. Now it requires a wardrobe and a gear checklist, just to walk to the corner. I recently stopped at a sporting goods store, looking for a canteen; the sales clerk looked at me blankly."

"You know," I said. "A canteen. A water bottle."

"How did this happen ? When the plethora of guidebooks flooded the recreation market and introduced eco-tourism 15 or so years ago, I was puzzled by the need of so many adults to be told how to have fun outdoors."

"When I first looked at a canyoneering website, I noticed that the photographs of every tour and its paid participants revealed healthy young men and women who should have been able to walk the mile and a h alf required without adult superision."

"And then it occurred to me: These people had never done anything without adult supervision."

"I thought about my niece and nephews, who, even 15 years ago, weren't allowed to go out and play in the neighborhood because the world was apparently a dangerous place. We were all at my parents' farm one winter, just after Christmas; it was a perfect 160-acre spead in Kentucky, with hay barns and spring fed lakes and forests full of poison ivy and grape vines to swing from and limestone ledges loaded with fossils. It was a kids' paradise."

"But my nephews and niece came to me and said, "We're bored, Unca Jim," so I proposed that we go outside and explore. They thought that was a pretty dumb idea, but I made them go. I took them to the barn and taught them how to build forts out of hay bales. We walked to the pond and punched holes in the ice with big rocks. They thought all this was fun, but it had never occurred to me that it was late to discover random recreation. The poor kids, I thought. They have no idea what they've missed."

"But I hadn't noticed, not being a parent myself, that almost all kids were like my little relatives. Now those kids are young adults and about to have families of their own, and they have no hope of passing along any of those free-spirited adventures that I was so blessed with as a child. To them, such stories are hearsay."

"True to the American way, someone has been able to attach an affliction to this condition. It's in the title of a book by Richard Louv: "Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder." As writer Bradford McKee described the disorder in The New York Times, "The days of free-range childhood seem to be over. Parents can add a new worry to the list of things that make them feel inept: increasingly their children, as Woody Allen might say, are at two with nature."

"Children who are obsessed with computer games or driven from sport to sport, Louv maintains, miss the restorative effects that come with the nimbler bodies and sharper senses that are developed during random running around in wild places. Modern science will no doubt spend millions on research and development to produce a medication to cure this ailment, when all the afflicted really need is a walk in the woods. But the farther these "de-natured children" stray from a spontaneous natural experience, the less likely they are to ever discover a world that seems, to me, impossible to live without."

"With an ever-growing billion-dollar industry dependent on these dependent souls, it is, in every sense of the word, a co-dependent relationship. A fool parting with his money is a necessary component of the amenities economy, and one likely to grow ever more foolish and expensive with every passing sunset -- an experience that may someday arrive arranged and conducted by the "Sunset Adventure Tour Company."

++++++++++++

Whew, he said a mouthful. Most families I know of today, including some of my own, transport their children from sport to sport, play-date to play-date, and then home to their computers and computer games or watching movies on DVD.

Remembering back when as a child my summer vacation days were at random divided between inertia and exertia, at my whim or that of the leader of the pack I hung with. Time spent in the maple tree across the street, lazing through a book or just orally teasing one another, until a spark would light us off and away we'd go.

I remember being gradually allowed to go across the street or next door to play with friends and going with an uncle of someone to the park. I think I was ten years old when my orders were to be home just before dark. My folks pretty well knew where I was and who I was with and I tried to live up to their trust.

When I was a little older and had a bicycle, the world was my sphere, I'd wrap a jacket around the handlebars, tie off a sack lunch and cup and either alone or with someone I would adventure out into the wilds of the nearby country. There would be times of sitting in the shade of a tree and allowing my mind to wander at its own whim. Times spent in watching cattle and horses doing their things, times spent in playing in a stream. But it was summer vacation, no need to be anywhere at any given time -- except, "Be home before dark." And sometimes when I got home it was rather dim, but not yet dark.

I guess that early on I learned to be aware and take care, probably was the time I tried to open a jackknife and cut my finger to the bone, the realization that foolish actions produced dire results. So along the way I learned to be observant of things around me and determine if evasive action was needed. Of course I had been told to not accept candy from a stranger, not accept car rides from strangers, nor fall for a stranger telling me, "Your Momma's sick and wants me to take you home." I guess back then we kids paid attention, must have as I'm still here.

Our kids were raised pretty much the way Jim Stiles came up. Although we quietly checked now and then, we knew where our kids were and who they were playing with, gradually loosening the "report in" times and pushing the fence line further out as they grew in responsibility. Seems like nowadays parents know only structured activities, making a childs time full to the gills with organized things. Play dates -- good gosh -- either a kid was home and could play -- was sick and couldn't -- or was being punished and in home gaol. We managed to get our fill of "fun" play without having to be taken across town to some dingbat thing or other.

Yet, with the whole country filling with buildings and blacktop with scanty parks having little to offer, perhaps the only thing a parent can do now is to make sure their children's minds are stimulated and learning as they grow. And, of course, most every one running their behinds off, how can kids ever meet to do "random fun things" ?

Even now though, I find that I must rise from my keyboard and go do something fun, maybe take pictures, go out to the park with Heather or visiting relatives. Even shopping can be fun, now and then.

But Jim Stiles tells it like it once was, like it was for me and I do so wish that more kids could enjoy summer vacations like I did once upon a time.

The era may be past, but even so, still to me it MAKES SENSE . . . . . . . . . . .

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