If you want a cause to chuckle, and who doesn’t need one these days, try giving some small children a simple cardboard box and watch what they do with it. In short order, they could turn it into a fort, or a plane, a boat or a place to hide.
Children that young don’t need the latest gadgets. They make their own bells and whistles.
One of our staff members stumbled across this bit of enlightenment a few years ago, while wall climbing at the CLC YMCA in Damariscotta.
Up in the balcony area of the old pre-renovation Y, two small children were creating endless delight in a rather large, empty cardboard box. Their peals of laughter brightened the then dimly lit space, bouncing around the room before sliding down the walls to puddle into pools of joy on the floor.
As much as we preach about the importance of buying local; as much as the marketers and retailers and behavioral scientists have done their dead level best to take the religion out of Christmas and substitute shopping satisfaction for Yuletide joy, we would argue this occasion itself is really just a large cardboard box: it’s rife with possibilities.
It is not what Christmas brings to us that is important, it’s what we bring to it.
Those looking for a reason for religious salvation, or seasonal depression or even just an excuse to gather with friends and family and watch basketball on TV can find plenty of fuel for their fire.
– Merry Christmas
