|
|
 |
Skip a Rope
By Mona Lease
Hi, all!! When I was in elementary school, we had a list of four or
five sentences. You had to put a number (1-4, in this case.) at the
beginning of each sentence to list the order of priority. So it would
be: You have one cleaning cloth you have to reuse. You need to do the
dishes, clean the refrigerator, clean the toilet, and hand mop the
floor. You may rinse out the cloth. Where do you start and end? Good
Luck!!
I sat at a campgrounds last Saturday watching a large group of kiddies
intermingle - no one was really "playing" - pool, basketball,
etc...just "hanging out" as they say. The kiddies ranged in age from 4
- yes, four, to 18 years of age. There was no adult supervision but, it
was out in the open. There was a building for the pool table and
restrooms - male and female.
I watched 12 year old girls & older, walk by guys their age &
older and give them a backhand hit to the chest or a fist to the upper
arm. The guys responded by pulling the girl's arms behind her and
swinging her in a circle or something close to that.
I listened as the kiddies spoke of their parents drinking and fighting
or telling them how to behave and immediately violating the activity
they had just declared taboo, when company arrived.
The disturbing part (to me) was watching a five year old girl backhand
some boy close to her age and run immediately to another boy and repeat
the backhand....she looked to be 5!!! She's too young to realize the
hen/rooster dance the other, older kiddies were doing - right now.
She'll figure it out, though. Probably too soon.
But, as she ages - will she think that is how you conduct yourself
...you like someone so you throw a punch - lightly or not? Aside from
the fact that it just looks wrong - will anyone tell the guys they have
more muscle mass and could hurt a girl? Have we become that "physical?"
I remember a clap on the shoulder. I do not remember a girl drawing
back and letting a fist fly - playing that it is.
Then, Henson Cargill started singing in my head - "Listen to the
children while they play/Ain't is kinda funny what the children
say?/Skip a rope/Daddy hates Mommy/Mom hates Dad/Last night you shoulda
heard the fight they had/....cheat on your taxes, now don't be a
fool/What was that they said about the Golden Rule?.../Skip a
rope. Excerpt from Skip a Rope. 1967. Henson Cargill
Back to the above "test." I would clean the fridge, rinse the cloth. Do
the dishes. rinse the cloth. I sweep before I mop, so I would hand mop,
rinse the cloth. And, I would only wash the toilet seat, rinse the
cloth. It should show that if critical thinking is not taught at
an early age (no one I've spoken to has had anything like this, in any
grade!) - when would anyone learn it? If we do not know how to
prioritize general house cleaning - how would we prioritize "cleaning
our lives ...our world"...in the end?
Remember the kiddies and our service people. Take good care of the
furry and feathered ones out there. Be safe and healthy. See ya next
time. Ever Toodles!! MONA
|
|
|
<
|
