Thanks Due for Playing Outside

For those old enough to remember and those who had the privilege of nature as a playground, childhood for many of us was a wonderous adventure during play time.

I'm now grateful that on Saturdays and in the summer I was able to play outside, anywhere in my neighborhood, all day long until I had to eat lunch or go to the bathroom or I heard Mom's dinner bell screwed onto the front of the house.

It was also a generous gift, I now realize, to be allowed to go to summer camp for a week beginning when I was 6 years old.  This annual bonanza of independence and primitive living (housed in a cabin, a tipi or a leanto) was the highlight of the year for 12 consecutive years.

Learning to swim, to canoe on the river, archery contests, lashing a handrail fence up a steep hill, apprentice counselor training, primitive 3-day camping trips and the bonding with camp friends are all cherished memories.  And nobody in my family, not parents or siblings or even my Gram could ever know what I knew or feel what I felt because it was my very special unique passion.

Of all of life's joys, this experience rises above all others as a touchstone of something.   precious and personal.  This prompts another memory of my very favorite Christmas at 10 years old when I got the sleeping bag I asked for and a world globe.

All this was heightened today with the Guardian article by George Monibiot via Truthdig.

"The remarkable collapse of children’s engagement with nature – which is even faster than the collapse of the natural world – is recorded in Richard Louv’s book Last Child in the Woods, and in a report published recently by the National Trust. Since the 1970s the area in which children may roam without supervision has decreased by almost 90%. In one generation the proportion of children regularly playing in wild places in the UK has fallen from more than half to fewer than one in 10. In the US, in just six years (1997-2003) children with particular outdoor hobbies fell by half. Eleven- to 15-year-olds in Britain now spend, on average, half their waking day in front of a screen. 

… And here we meet the other great loss. Most of those I know who fight for nature are people who spent their childhoods immersed in it. Without a feel for the texture and function of the natural world, without an intensity of engagement almost impossible in the absence of early experience, people will not devote their lives to its protection. The fact that at least half the published articles on ash dieback have been illustrated with photos of beeches, sycamores or oaks seems to me to be highly suggestive."

Encinitas has the great good fortune of a climate and natural resources of ocean, wetlands, open spaces, parks and hiking trails.  Unstructured and unsupervised play has been enjoyed by generations.  There is a great tradition of surfing, skateboarding and other sports that celebrate individual exploration outside of and addition to organized sports.

For some years now there has been a real effort on the part of activist parents, various principals and teaching staff and now the Encinitas Union School District's Green Team to incorporate nature, gardens, composting, waste education into children's learning experience.  With the help of Healthy Partners, this effort is growing. Thank you Mim and Carol and all volunteers and the school district's efforts.

Don't forget to vote today and every day until Dec. 6, for Solana Center with Happy Day partners to win the Eco Ambassadors Award of $25,000 Solana Center. Vote here.

This is a close race now between 2 groups.  Solana Center is in second place so every vote counts.