Where Do You Want to Play Today—Inside or Out?

It was 97 degrees outside and 42 degrees inside.  And we were inside.  Way inside.  No, we weren’t pumping the air conditioner, we were spelunking.  Actually spelunking is a bit too technical for this mile long hike through a lava cave.  It was mostly just a cool walk with an old Coleman lantern lighting the way.  But we were a good 80 feet underground hiking through the cold, crowded darkness toward nothing more than the dirt end of the tunnel.  No marker, no view, nothing really.  Just a solid sand wall that meant that you had to turn back and head out.  (So I guess we were outside.)

And we were having a blast. 

The further we went into the cave, the lower the ceiling became.  It was dark and cold and kind of creepy.  As we came upon the last 300 yards or so, anyone over 5 feet tall needed to get on hands and knees and crawl. 

Some of the adults in our party decided that a nice “comfortable” rock would be a good resting place while I crawled along with the four kids.  Ages 12, 11, 10, 8 they hooted and hollered and encouraged big, old, slow Dad along.  For the two youngest kids in our party, this was heaven.  They had to lead, my young daughter even got to carry the lantern because I couldn’t crawl through the cave and shine the light at the same time.  (“C’mon people we’re heading on!” My daughter yelled as the commander of this cave exploration team.) We finally got to the end of the tunnel, cheered and exchanged low “fives”. 

When we came upon the rest of the adults on the way out, the kids were a good 20 feet ahead of me.  My crawling pace was no match for their scampering little legs.  When I finally caught up, my wife said to me, “You should have seen the girls’ faces. They were so proud of themselves, so excited.”  They were genuinely having fun playing in a cave marching a mile in the cold dirt, hanging onto a old gas lantern.

This memory is in such stark contrast to the now famous quote from Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Louv cites a fourth grader who says to him, “I like to play indoors better ’cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.”

And I have to admit that left to themselves, my kids will often opt for playing indoors.  They’d gladly watch TV all morning long if we let them.  When we trudge through some long miles in the car on the way to a beautiful spot, will let them watch a DVD.  (I even jumped in the back seat and watched “Because of Winn Dixie” with my daughter while my wife drove us down the I-5 heading out of Sacramento.)  But something happens to us when we get out and play. 

Not only did we hike in a cave this year but we last year we walked seven miles through the Narrows River canyon in Utah.  This year we hiked in the rainforest, plunged off of rocks into huge pools in a river in Belize and swam in Crater Lake in Oregon. 

According to Louv, this is not only fun, but important and healthy to a growing generation of kids who can use the internet to find and spout out more facts on the rainforests than they can possibly remember but rarely get to climb a tree, catch tadpoles or watch clouds go by during the day and stars at night. 

After ten years of research Louv is convinced that kids’ disconnection from nature is a contributor to a number of different dire consequences including a diminished use of the senses, attention problems, and increased emotional and physical diseases.  What is most interesting is that kids who actually live in areas most proximate to nature don’t necessarily experience any more nature than kids in urban and suburban settings.

We live in a beach town.  It’s the end of August.  And yesterday my kids started back to school (their summer cut obscenely short by the current emphasis on test scores and increasing school funding).  When my seventh grade son did a quick “get to know” discussion in one of his classes, he asked his partner what his favorite hobby was.  The boy said, “Video games.” 

Comments

[Kerry]

Welcome home! Great thots, thanks. It is not wonder we find the word creation in recreation.

[revkasedoggy]

Sounds like a great book Tod and that you had a way cool trip. A good resource for those of us with kiddoes.

[Karen]

I blame a lot of this problem on parents. I work at a day care and there are SOO m any parents who complain about their kids coming home dirty. How are kids supposed to play outside without getting dirty?!

And so many adults are worried when kids run around barefoot or play in the rain or the sun or anything else. What else are kids supposed to do?

[Steve]

Bruddah Tod:

Greetings from Maui, bro. This is a GREAT topic. Go with it and run......

Steve (may not return to reality)