dual personalities

“How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside.
Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown–
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!”

–  Robert Louis Stevenson, The Swing 

You may have noticed that swings are becoming less common on school playgrounds throughout the country for liability reasons and because school officials are “looking for new ways to engage students in activities using safer equipment.” We are told that more than 200,000 children show up in hospital emergency rooms each year due to playground equipment injuries, according to the National Safety Council. Fewer than 20 of those accidents are fatal, but “swing set danger” looms large in the public’s imagination.**

Well.

I was a timid child. Lots of things scared me, but I loved to swing. And I liked to swing high, the higher the better. Sometimes I would swing and sing at the same time! Talk about feeling free! I mean I was never crazy and I held on tight–not like one of our friends who swears he could swing up and over on the swings at his elementary school. I was no dare-devil, but even timid kids like me can feel like they can fly on a swing. And they can flirt with danger in a way that is an important part of growing up.

Indeed, I’m with old RLS.

*Willa Cather; the illustration is by Mary Blair

**Statistics found here.