Life's Lesson
As I grow older I tend to look back at the various stages or segments of my life and wonder which taught me the most. Each had its moments. Marriage taught me patience, fatherhood nurturing. College taught me to be responsible and to take care of myself, being a teenager taught me what it meant to become a man. Despite all of these momentous stages one other stage stands out as the very foundation of who I am. Nothing is more impressionable, more formative, more developmental than the playground. That small corner of a child's world was our zone. It was our island in Lord of the Flies. It was the place where children interacted with each other and the pecking order, the social hierarchy was established. There were no parents, only an attendant and like a prison guard in a tower at the fictional Nazi camp Stalag 13, there was always moment when their back was turned or the spotlight didn't shine. Lake Otis Elementary school in Anchorage, Alaska was my proving ground