Playground

The true object of all human life is play.

Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.

~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

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The night of Maddie's birthday party, she and her friends went over to the school playground to play a game her uncle made up called "Cougar." Given current connotations of what the word cougar refers to in our culture, I might have chosen a different name, but this is neither here nor there. Basically, it involves some sort of hide-and-go-seek and trying to scare the people with whom you are playing.

Anyway, as the girls approached the playground, they saw some boys there, smoking. The boys apparently asked if the girls wants to smoke some pot. The girls ran home (for some reason in two separate groups and without telling us when they got home what had occurred).

When Chris found out the next day why "Cougar" was cut so short, she said to me, "I'm glad they are good kids. That could have been really bad. Can you imagine them going home and saying, 'Mom and Dad, can we spend the night at Maddie's again soon? She went to bed at 10 o'clock, but before that we got to smoke weed with some kids from her neighborhood!"