I have always loved being outside, and growing up that was especially true! Summertime outside was my favorite time of the year because there was always something to do. We always seem to have what we needed, but we didn’t have many material things that were just for fun. So…what do you do when you have plenty of time, an acre of yard, and little money? You make your own brand of fun, oh boy, we did a lot of that!
Some of the games my brothers and I created had an element of danger to them. One of those games we called “you can’t run away”. The setup for this game was very sophisticated, you need two people, four sticks not longer than 14 inches and not wider than 2 inches, one or two hunks of medium grade dirt, the last and most important item was a wasp nest with at least 15 angry wasps. The game begins with each person throwing their hunk of dirt at the nest and quickly picking up your two sticks, and preparing for the attack.
Remember, the name of this game is “you can’t run”, so you are standing in a swarm of angry wasp who just had their home blown away. My mission (if you choose to accept it) is to protect my brother because I could see what’s coming at him better than he could. His mission was to protect me from the wasps coming to attack me. I imagine that would have made a very interesting video if you could have captured us looking like we were recreating a scene from the first Matrix movie. We never ran, and we never got stung! During that game, we protected each other from the painful sting of angry wasps.
We created that game because it was fun, and provided hours of excitement and challenges. Today we have thousands maybe even millions of kids who are in situations where there is no one watching over them and protecting them from the attacks of life. It is going to take an army of dedicated youth workers volunteer, and paid staff to stand and fight for those kids who really can’t run away! The kids are waiting for someone to help.
HAMSIGHT: Go find a hunk of dirt and two sticks and get ready to stand with the kids who can’t run away.
Hamsights 