Little Engineers
Just a simple recollection of childhood:
We constructed the roads we would drive
our little toy cars around,
with a small metal shovel about three inches wide
that we used with our pails at the beach.
The cars and trucks were also usually metal,
plastics not being as ubiquitous in those days.
We would pile up the dirt and sand
to make hills and valleys.
Sometimes we would even connect
two earthen mounds with a small board
to make a bridge over a pretend river.
We would race around the roadways
with our little cars and for a while
be utterly lost in our make-believe world.
We frequently crashed into each others vehicles
and in the process destroyed the roads
we so painstakenly designed in the dirt.
And then we would argue about who did what
to whom and end up yelling and perhaps
even hitting each other unless
our mother heard the ruckus and intervened
and forced us to apologize and make up
(against our will, of course).
Destroying each others toys seemed
to be the prevailing sport when we were so young.
Just as it seems to be today (metaphorically),
when we are not so young.
Globally. the difference being
that we tend to hurt a great deal more
than each others feelings.
Where is Mother when you need her?
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