Hiding Places

When I was a kid I loved to play hide-and-go-seek, especially the hiding part, if it was a good day I could hide for a good ½ an hour and make all the other kids quite sick of me. Part of the thrill of hiding was to find new places that I didn’t know about that could become great places to get away from people and trouble. I still like exploring for new places, but don’t find myself looking for places to hide anymore. One irony of coming to Italy was that someone told me I may be suspected of hiding by some people, but really, do I care what accusations folks may have? I am here to find something, and finding things I am!

While exploring the stream one day I found a cement bridge that was very overgrown with debris and underneath the bridge a beautiful old bicycle camouflaged by the plants. Something about the place, the combination of beauty, bridge and child’s bike had my mind spinning with possible stories and scenarios. I thought back on the old rope swing we had as kids over the stream in our neighborhood, it was beyond scary and into dangerous. The swing was tied to a very high branch on a tree at the top of a ravine and there was a good 5 story drop to the creek bed below. To make it even more thrilling the rope was a combination of pieces of different types of ropes tied together to make it long enough to swing out over the stream. Of course the neighborhood swinging ended with a broken leg and very angry parents worried that someone could have died there.

So I’m looking at the narrow cement bridge and the bicycle below and I am wondering, similar story? Something else? I couldn’t help but go a bit Stephen King ghoulish with the possibilities. After about 10 minutes of enjoying the ideas I got to thinking about playing with my 7 year old friend here Alberto and how we play hide-and-go-seek, tag, and soccer, just like in America, and how there just might be similarities between this place and our stream. It was like finding buried treasure, a place to come back to and bring a friend to ask if there are stories of this place. Rather than a place to hide, this is a wonderful place to seek out the stories of the people who live here. What did you play? Do you know who’s bike that is? What is the story of the bike? What was it like to grow up in Piegaro?

The beauty of hide-and-seek is that when one needs to hide it is a comforting game, but when one is open to seeking it is amazing all that can be found, including your friends.
How do you utilize games and play to develop relationships?
What memories of childhood inform where you are today?
What surprising new discoveries have you made recently that have given you pause to wonder?