Merry-Go-Round Revisited

Many grains of sand passed through the hourglass before he returned to Oak Hill Park. The summers of his youth had been spent in the playground and the pools that made Oak Hill Park such a great place to grow up.

As her walked through the park his memory appeared to be playing tricks on him. The pool was smaller than he remembered. The high dive was shorter. The tennis courts were not as grand. Even the statue that had represented the first settlers in this valley had been taken away. Worst of all, the playground no longer resembled the playground of his youth. Gone were the rocket ship and the merry-go-round replaced by the new wave of "kid friendly" toys, odd shaped bars with small slides and rings with padding covering everything. Even the height of the swings had been reduced, no longer could the boys and girls soar high into the sky pretending to be astronauts and fighter pilots. These new fangled swings have no lift what so ever.

He circled the playground, dismayed at the changes that time had inflicted upon his favorite hang out. Realistically he knew that nothing lasted forever, but recently he had found that many places he remembered from his youth either no longer existed or had changed almost beyond recognition. Wandering through the haunts of his youth was beginning to make him feel old.

Eventually he found himself laying back on the grass and watching the clouds chase each other across the sky. In his minds eye he could still see the rocket ship and his ten-year-old self sitting on the top level reading a worn copy of "Treasure Island". So many years had passed since then, so much water under the bridge. With a sigh he turned towards the bare sand where the merry-go-round used to sit. He remembered spinning for hours watching the leaves passing over head in a blur until dizziness forced him to bail out. He would collapse in the sand, turn on to his back and it was as if he could feel the entire world spinning beneath him.

His thoughts turned to that innocent ten-year-old that he had once been. If right here, right now the stars came into some weird type of cosmic alignment that somehow allowed me to communicate with him what would I say. What nuggets of hard earned wisdom would I share with the past? A very interesting question indeed.

He lay there in the grass and allowed his thoughts to follow the slippery slopes of Mount What If. So much has happened since I was that innocent child. Some of it great, some of it good and of course some of it bad.

Well he thought, I would most definitely tell him to avoid Interstate 70 on March 2, 2001, no reason we shouldn't avoid that accident if we can. I would tell him to hang out at home longer. To give himself enough time to get his act together before fleeing the family nest. I would definitely advise making better choices in room mates and avoiding the whole small claims route. And of course I would let him know that he could save himself a lot of embarrassment by not asking Lisa Ryan to the prom in front of the entire world and being shot down.

Hmm what else is worth passing along he wondered. What should I tell him about the marriage and the divorce? What could I tell him about being a father? I definitely should remind him to spend enough time with his parents and grand parents before time and age take them away. Should I mention career choices and financial lessons?

The more he pondered this scenario the more he realized that in reality he would not pass on any of his original ideas to his past self. If it were possible to pass information back in time it would be simple to warn himself about all of the mistakes he/they had made. It would be simple but it would not be right.

No if I could pass along a message to the past it would be simply to remind my former self to take the time to stop and smell the roses. Each event he/they had lived through were lessons that had been learned. Change the event and just maybe the lesson would be lost and a chance would be wasted. Forget the marriage and lose the joy of the kids. Forget the great prom question and lose the courage to approach someone you would like to know better. No, in reality he would if he could pass along a one word message: ENJOY.

As he turned his back on the playground and walked away he could almost hear the squeaks of the merry-go-round and the joyous laughter of yesterday's children.