Try to keep the balance
When I was a boy, I spent a lot of time at a playground relatively close to my house. It was a great place to nearly die. I say that jokingly, but if you’re honest about it most playground equipment has the potential to end you if you’re not paying attention.
The playground had an awesome old slide. It was metal and tall and very speedy. If you were wearing the right shorts, you could fly on that thing. The swings were also substantially questionable for their death potential. Long chains, attached to high metal bars, and those rubbery seats that perfectly conformed to the size and shape of your butt. If you got a good push on that thing, it was the perfect recipe for high sailing, and that thing where ‘you go up as high as you can and then let go to see how far you can fly before you break every bone in your little body’. Classic!
There was also this thing that looked like a piece of cheese. It was a towered, tube of concrete with holes all through it. It was painted pale yellow. You were supposed to climb all through it and find your way out of one of the holes. Not necessarily a thing that would kill you… unless it was from boredom. Of course, there was a Jungle Jim. (When I get around a lot of little kids, and they start climbing on me, I always say, “Hey, look at me! I’m a Jungle Tim!” I know. Stupid.) It was your standard ‘wrung by wrung climb across’ thing, and it had “rings on chains” at the end for the kids who fancied themselves Olympic Athletes.
Then there’s the “spinny, twirly vomit inducer.” A round wooden platform, with a railing, that spins on a central axis. If there’s an older kid around, you can be sure he’ll be happy to spin that thing as fast as he possibly can until you either puke or come flying off that thing like a rag doll. One of my favorites was the “teeter totter.” I didn’t use it much, because you needed another kid. It’s no fun when you can’t teeter…. or totter.
Though there were kids that stood near the middle to balance themselves like they were on a surfboard. I guess if you don’t have another kid, it’s just a strange seat with a handle. The Teeter-Totter is all about balance. One kid pushes off , so that you sink and he rises, then you push off so that you can rise into the air while he sinks.
If you happened to be with a particularly rotten kid, he would eventually step off when you’re the one who is elevated, and if you weren’t paying attention you would shoot back to earth at terminal velocity, and receive an extra crack where one already existed.
We live at a time where there is very little balance. A great many people live at extremes. Yelling back and forth about one belief over another. There are extremes right now during the COVID-19 troubles. Some say, “It’s not so bad. We’ll be fine.”
The other extreme says, “The whole world is entering a dark age.” Both could absolutely be true. We really don’t know how this will end. However, we do each other a disservice if we don’t try and keep a balance. That balance is, watching out for you and your family, and watching out for those around you. It’s a simple thing to keep safe.
The steps aren’t going to really ruin your life. But if you choose to ignore those steps, you could end up jumping off of the teeter totter and put an end to someone else. Look out for one another. Stay safe for yours AND theirs. Keep the balance.
Tim Hartman is a resident of Ben Avon and political cartoonist.