Private Thoughts Made Public

When I was a child, my parents used to drive me and my brother to the local park (well, not the absolutely most local park, as that was just a walk away, but the nearest park of any size) and let us play around on the swings and roundabouts, paddle in the pool, pet the animals, roll down hills, feed the ducks on the lake and go for boat rides. It made for a very busy day out indeed.
I only mention this because today I went back to the same park with my dad. Of course it wasn’t just the two of us, we took my son, niece and nephew with us. Comparing the day out we had today with the days out we had thirty-something years ago, there are several significant changes, some for better, some for worse.
The first change was that we had to pay for the car park. You don’t seem to be able to breathe these days without having to dig into your pocket to do so. The second change was that we went to a brand new play area in the park, just opened last month. This play area is fan-tas-tic! In the middle is a huge pyramid, a death slide, a rather muddy water/sand play area, lots of things to keep little brains and little hands occupied, all surrounded by brand new landscaping, young sapling trees, blue skies and an ice cream van. Sheer perfection.
Sadly, the paddling pool, petting zoo and boating lake have all been deemed too dangerous for the future of our nation to play with. Every time I walk past the six-inch-deep hole in the ground decorated with blue tiles, which used to echo with the sounds of laughter and splashing, but now has a “keep out – broken glass” sign next to it I think “what a waste”. Every time I see the empty and overgrown cage where once a ferocious tiger used to sleep just behind that log, always out of sight but definately there and ready to bite your hand off should he ever feel like it, I think “this all used to be much better than it is now”. Every time I walk past the boating lake where the water used to be much more blue, the boats much newer, with their engines put-putting little puffs of exhaust smoke into the air just above the waterline, and again people laughing and splashing and trying to get on and off the boats without falling in, I think back to happier days, more innocent days, days when a parent would happily let a child ride a bike a few miles to the park without fear of them getting abducted or run over or worse…. and I look at the state of the park and the state of the world and wonder where it all went so wrong.
Then I look at the brand new play area and think “well, it’s not all so bad, is it?”