There once was a playground…By David SeowOnce, in a time ...
There once was a playground…By David Seow
Once, in a time so very long ago, a kind and gentle old man built a playground unlike anything anyone had ever seen. Slides of snowy mountains flowed into rivers of blueberry oceans and fields of strawberry seas. Butterflies and lightning bugs danced around windmills of giant daisies and golden daffodils. And silver swings swung from a celestial cathedral of stars…
And though it was as wondrous as anything could possibly be, the playground was missing the one thing that would make it perfectly complete: children, children who would fill it with laughter and joy.So the old man invited children of every color and age to his magical playground. And when they were all gathered before him, he said: “You’re welcome to stay and play as long as you like. I built this playground for you. But before you do, there are three simple rules you must follow. Now listen carefully: 1.) Always be kind 2.) Always play nice 3.) And always take care of this playground. “We promise, oh we promise,” said the children exploding with excitement. “We’ll follow all your rules. We won’t break any of them, ever! We promise!”With this most important of promises sealed, the old man beamed and swung open the gates to his wonderful playground.Like a cascading mountain stream, the crush of children flowed in, swirling around the sunbeam carousels, gliding on the placid crystal-shored lakes, and sweeping over trees of the sweetest nectarine creams. Their utter joy swam across waves of the darkening silken night sky, a symphony of happiness echoing all around. Everything was as exactly as the old man had wanted it to be in his impossibly perfect playground.And just when he thought everyone had entered, he felt five small fingers wrap around his thumb; it was the smallest of all the children.The old man knelt down. “Now, why aren’t you playing with your friends?”The little boy looked at the man, his eyes big wide and round. Then he wiped his nose and smiled. “I just wanted to say thank. Thank you for making this for us. You must love us a lot. I love you a lot too” With that he threw his arms around the old man’s neck and pulled him in for the biggest, tightest hug ever. Then boy skipped along to join all the other children at playThe old man’s heart glowed as it had never done before. This was good, he thought. Oh so very good.Then one day, the old man decided to go on a journey, perhaps to build more another wondrous playground for those in need of one.“But who will look after the playground? Who will look after all of us?” asked the children? “Well, if you follow all the rules, said the old man, “there will be nothing to fear.” Then turning to the smallest boy, he said, “But if you need me for anything, you will know where to find me.”“He, knows,” the old man said, “he knows”. The small boy nodded silently. All he had to do was follow his heart. And so the old man left on his long journey, leaving the children to take care of the playground as they had promised. For a while all was well, the children continued to obey the rules and played nicely. But things slowly began to change. It all started, when the older children felt that they should spend more time on the rides than the younger ones. After all, they were older.“But that’s not part of the rules,” said the small boy. Stop this! We’re supposed to be kind, and share this playground. That’s what the old man told us to do.”“These are the new rules,” said the oldest of the oldest children. “And there’s nothing you can do about it. You have to listen to us or you don’t get to play…” The small boy and his friends knew this was so very wrong. So they decided play their own games instead. “Ignore them,” said the oldest boy. "They won’t be able to resist the rides. They’ll come around.”At first everyone accepted this… but in time, the older children wanted to spend more and more time on the rides; soon nobody else had a chance to go on them. And this certainly didn’t make the younger children very happy.But the small boy and his friends had a wonderful time, playing amongst themselves, with their own games and making their own rides. So it was not surprising when other children decided to join them instead of going on the rides.This did not please the older children, so they had to come up with another plan. “Let’s be fair, why don’t we have a competition,” the older children said, “The winners of the competitions will control each of the rides and decide who gets to go on them.”The small boy and his friends did not think so, “It’s not fair. We’re supposed to share this playground.” But many of the other children ignored them. The children and the competition began. As with most competitions, there were winners and losers. The playground was divided up between the two different winning teams. Everyone else had to choose a team to follow. This did not make the winners very happy. They were not content to control their parts of the playground; they wanted to control the whole playground. So they began to fight over it. And. in so doing, they began to tear the playground apart, bit by bit. As the fighting raged around them, the small boy and his friends remained safe and happy amongst themselves. They hoped that the others would come to their senses and realize that they were wrong. And that they would stop all the silliness. And there was no point fighting. But the leaders of the teams’ hearts were hard. They didn’t come to their senses. And each team knew that they could never take control of the playground if the small boy was there. So in one swift move, the winning teams descended upon the small group and overpowered it. The teams grabbed the boy and beat him, and hit him and kicked him over and over and over again. And then they threw him out of the playground and locked the gates. Although badly wounded, the boy could hear a fearsome battle raging behind the gates, and he knew he had to find the old man to put a stop to it. The old man said he would know where to find him. And the boy knew all he had to do was follow the map of his heart. He traveled, crawling on his hands feet, bearing the pain that engulfed every inch him; and he found the old man and collapsed at his feet.A flood of tears raced man’s face as he cradled the boy, the tears healed each and every wound. “What happened? Who did this to you?” he asked. “The playground. It’s not the same since you’ve been gone. Nobody’s listening to the rules and they’re fighting over it. I don’t think they know what they are doing.” Then the small boy closed his exhausted eyes and he went to sleep. Flushed with sorrow and rage, the old man took a hold of the small boys hands and snapped his fingers and in flash they were back in the playground! The children were still fighting and they didn’t seem to care that they were destroying everything.“Stop!” the old man yelled, amber lightning flashed turning the sky a blood red and the earth quaked, spewed red hot angry lava. “What have you done?”At the sound of his fury, the children dropped their weapons. They tried to explain why they were fighting. “They started it, we’re right and they were wrong, they said; each blaming the other side for staring it.“Enough!” the old man snapped. “You knew the rules. You promised to obey the rules but you did this. Were the rules simple? Were they difficult to understand?”The children hung their head in speechless shame.“You didn’t care. You fought over something that was already yours. It was not enough for you. You wanted more and more and more. You selfish children you all deserve to remain in here. This shall be your victory!”The children looked around the playground that once had been so beautiful and full joy was now a place of smoldering sorrow and despair.“I have built a new playground, a playground that can never be destroyed. And only those who obeyed my rules and may enter.“Please everyone,” begged, “We promise we We won’t fight. We won’t destroy it. We’re sorry.”“But you promised to do all I asked the first time,” said the old man. Your promises are empty words. You shall remain here to think of what you have done.”And although the children kept on pleasing and begging to let them into the new playground, the old man did not listen. He swept the smallest boy and his group of friends to his new playground, leaving the rest of the children in the shattered place to think of what they had done and what they all had lost.
Once, in a time so very long ago, a kind and gentle old man built a playground unlike anything anyone had ever seen. Slides of snowy mountains flowed into rivers of blueberry oceans and fields of strawberry seas. Butterflies and lightning bugs danced around windmills of giant daisies and golden daffodils. And silver swings swung from a celestial cathedral of stars…
And though it was as wondrous as anything could possibly be, the playground was missing the one thing that would make it perfectly complete: children, children who would fill it with laughter and joy.So the old man invited children of every color and age to his magical playground. And when they were all gathered before him, he said: “You’re welcome to stay and play as long as you like. I built this playground for you. But before you do, there are three simple rules you must follow. Now listen carefully: 1.) Always be kind 2.) Always play nice 3.) And always take care of this playground. “We promise, oh we promise,” said the children exploding with excitement. “We’ll follow all your rules. We won’t break any of them, ever! We promise!”With this most important of promises sealed, the old man beamed and swung open the gates to his wonderful playground.Like a cascading mountain stream, the crush of children flowed in, swirling around the sunbeam carousels, gliding on the placid crystal-shored lakes, and sweeping over trees of the sweetest nectarine creams. Their utter joy swam across waves of the darkening silken night sky, a symphony of happiness echoing all around. Everything was as exactly as the old man had wanted it to be in his impossibly perfect playground.And just when he thought everyone had entered, he felt five small fingers wrap around his thumb; it was the smallest of all the children.The old man knelt down. “Now, why aren’t you playing with your friends?”The little boy looked at the man, his eyes big wide and round. Then he wiped his nose and smiled. “I just wanted to say thank. Thank you for making this for us. You must love us a lot. I love you a lot too” With that he threw his arms around the old man’s neck and pulled him in for the biggest, tightest hug ever. Then boy skipped along to join all the other children at playThe old man’s heart glowed as it had never done before. This was good, he thought. Oh so very good.Then one day, the old man decided to go on a journey, perhaps to build more another wondrous playground for those in need of one.“But who will look after the playground? Who will look after all of us?” asked the children? “Well, if you follow all the rules, said the old man, “there will be nothing to fear.” Then turning to the smallest boy, he said, “But if you need me for anything, you will know where to find me.”“He, knows,” the old man said, “he knows”. The small boy nodded silently. All he had to do was follow his heart. And so the old man left on his long journey, leaving the children to take care of the playground as they had promised. For a while all was well, the children continued to obey the rules and played nicely. But things slowly began to change. It all started, when the older children felt that they should spend more time on the rides than the younger ones. After all, they were older.“But that’s not part of the rules,” said the small boy. Stop this! We’re supposed to be kind, and share this playground. That’s what the old man told us to do.”“These are the new rules,” said the oldest of the oldest children. “And there’s nothing you can do about it. You have to listen to us or you don’t get to play…” The small boy and his friends knew this was so very wrong. So they decided play their own games instead. “Ignore them,” said the oldest boy. "They won’t be able to resist the rides. They’ll come around.”At first everyone accepted this… but in time, the older children wanted to spend more and more time on the rides; soon nobody else had a chance to go on them. And this certainly didn’t make the younger children very happy.But the small boy and his friends had a wonderful time, playing amongst themselves, with their own games and making their own rides. So it was not surprising when other children decided to join them instead of going on the rides.This did not please the older children, so they had to come up with another plan. “Let’s be fair, why don’t we have a competition,” the older children said, “The winners of the competitions will control each of the rides and decide who gets to go on them.”The small boy and his friends did not think so, “It’s not fair. We’re supposed to share this playground.” But many of the other children ignored them. The children and the competition began. As with most competitions, there were winners and losers. The playground was divided up between the two different winning teams. Everyone else had to choose a team to follow. This did not make the winners very happy. They were not content to control their parts of the playground; they wanted to control the whole playground. So they began to fight over it. And. in so doing, they began to tear the playground apart, bit by bit. As the fighting raged around them, the small boy and his friends remained safe and happy amongst themselves. They hoped that the others would come to their senses and realize that they were wrong. And that they would stop all the silliness. And there was no point fighting. But the leaders of the teams’ hearts were hard. They didn’t come to their senses. And each team knew that they could never take control of the playground if the small boy was there. So in one swift move, the winning teams descended upon the small group and overpowered it. The teams grabbed the boy and beat him, and hit him and kicked him over and over and over again. And then they threw him out of the playground and locked the gates. Although badly wounded, the boy could hear a fearsome battle raging behind the gates, and he knew he had to find the old man to put a stop to it. The old man said he would know where to find him. And the boy knew all he had to do was follow the map of his heart. He traveled, crawling on his hands feet, bearing the pain that engulfed every inch him; and he found the old man and collapsed at his feet.A flood of tears raced man’s face as he cradled the boy, the tears healed each and every wound. “What happened? Who did this to you?” he asked. “The playground. It’s not the same since you’ve been gone. Nobody’s listening to the rules and they’re fighting over it. I don’t think they know what they are doing.” Then the small boy closed his exhausted eyes and he went to sleep. Flushed with sorrow and rage, the old man took a hold of the small boys hands and snapped his fingers and in flash they were back in the playground! The children were still fighting and they didn’t seem to care that they were destroying everything.“Stop!” the old man yelled, amber lightning flashed turning the sky a blood red and the earth quaked, spewed red hot angry lava. “What have you done?”At the sound of his fury, the children dropped their weapons. They tried to explain why they were fighting. “They started it, we’re right and they were wrong, they said; each blaming the other side for staring it.“Enough!” the old man snapped. “You knew the rules. You promised to obey the rules but you did this. Were the rules simple? Were they difficult to understand?”The children hung their head in speechless shame.“You didn’t care. You fought over something that was already yours. It was not enough for you. You wanted more and more and more. You selfish children you all deserve to remain in here. This shall be your victory!”The children looked around the playground that once had been so beautiful and full joy was now a place of smoldering sorrow and despair.“I have built a new playground, a playground that can never be destroyed. And only those who obeyed my rules and may enter.“Please everyone,” begged, “We promise we We won’t fight. We won’t destroy it. We’re sorry.”“But you promised to do all I asked the first time,” said the old man. Your promises are empty words. You shall remain here to think of what you have done.”And although the children kept on pleasing and begging to let them into the new playground, the old man did not listen. He swept the smallest boy and his group of friends to his new playground, leaving the rest of the children in the shattered place to think of what they had done and what they all had lost.
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