Parable of the Sandboxes
The mayor of a certain town was very concerned about the children during the summer. He knew that with nothing to do, they could easily get into trouble. He loved the children and wanted their summer experience to be a positive one. To remedy the situation, he created a large park filled with sandboxes. Each sandbox was supplied with large piles of coloured sand. He thought that by spending the summer playing together, the children would learn important lessons in creativity and cooperation. He hoped that their creations would make the town more attractive to both residents and visitors. On Labour Day, he would host a great BBQ to which all the participants in the summer sandbox program would be invited.
The mayor knew that children need guidance even in their play, so he had colourful signs posted around the park. The most frequently recurring signs had messages like. “Play together nicely.” “Get along.” “Enjoy yourself with your friends.” “Make something beautiful, together.”
As well, there were other helpful hints, like: “Be sure to share.” “Don’t throw sand, you might hurt someone.” And “Don’t play with sharp sticks, you might poke out someone’s eye.”
The mayor hoped that the children would learn to play together while they were young because they would all have to get along as neighbours when they grew up. What you learn in the sandbox, you take with you forever.
The mayor had a daughter. He asked her to be his representative and sent her to be the park supervisor. She walked among the sandboxes and helped the children as they made creations in the sand. She taught them how to use buckets to collect the sand and spread it out to make patterns. She taught them how to use their fingers to write in the sand and create interesting shapes. She taught them how to take the sand in their little hands and sprinkle it so that the colours blended and created new colours even more beautiful than the original ones. She taught them how to use a stick to draw fine details in their creations to make them beautiful for the mayor.
One day, some of the children looked at the creation another group was working on. They thought the sticks they were using were too sharp and said: “The sign says ‘Don’t play with sharp sticks, you might poke out someone’s eye.’ We want to please the mayor who made this beautiful park and we won’t play with you anymore because you’re disobeying the sign.”
The children who were using the sticks to make designs in the sand explained that the supervisor had showed them how to use the sticks and that they weren’t using them to fight with, like the two boys who had been sent home the day before.
The other children said, “We do not believe you. The supervisor would never tell you to disobey the signs which say ‘Do not play with sharp sticks.’ We will not play with you. We are not going to disobey the mayor’s signs.” And they went off to play in the sand making beautiful patterns with their fingers.
One day, the children who were using sticks were invited to join the children in another sandbox. They were excited about this and watched what their new friends were doing before joining in. They noticed that these children were not using their buckets to collect and spread the sand. They were taking it in their hands and sprinkling it. As the children watched, they said, “That looks like throwing sand. The sign says, ‘Don’t throw sand, you might hurt someone.’ The mayor wouldn’t like you throwing sand. That is disobeying the sign. We won’t play with you if you keep throwing sand.”
The children who were sprinkling the sand with their hands said, “The supervisor showed us how to make new colours like this. We are not throwing sand at each other. We are making something beautiful.”
But the others said, “We consider what you are doing to be disobeying the mayor’s sign, so we will not play with you.” And they took their sticks and buckets and moved on to an empty sandbox where they could play alone and make lovely things for the mayor in their own way.
So it was, throughout the summer, that the little groups of children became smaller and smaller as they watched how the other children responded to the signs. They all claimed that their way of pleasing the mayor was the only way and they would not play with others who had other ideas about that.
By the end of the summer, some of the children were playing by themselves or in little groups of two and three. Sometimes they made fun of each other. Sometimes they threatened each other. Most of them completely ignored the most common signs that said: “Play together nicely.” “Enjoy yourself with your friends.” “Make something beautiful, together.”
Whenever someone would point to these signs and ask, “Will you play with me?” The others would say, “No, because you play with sticks and that is being disobedient.” Or “No, because you throw sand and you’re not supposed to.” Or “No, because you only use your fingers and we don’t think your creations are as lovely as ours.”
On the last day of summer, the mayor came to inspect his park and to invite the children to his great BBQ. To his dismay, as he looked around, he could find almost no children who were playing happily together in groups. When they spotted him, they all began to shout to him, “Look at our sand creation. It is the most beautiful because we were the only ones to obey all the signs.”
He looked at them with sadness and then his great forgiving heart opened wide and he called on his megaphone to all the children to come and enjoy the great end of summer BBQ which he had prepared for them.
And all the children came, the bucket users, the hand sprinklers, the sharp stick users, the finger writers, they came and sat down together on comfortable benches under the great shade trees and ate hamburgers and hot dogs and steaks and spareribs and wonderful crispy chicken that would make your mouth water. It was a feast beyond belief.
As they sat there licking their chubby fingers, they looked at each other sheepishly and one by one began to say, “I’d really like to play with you.”
Ron Hughes
© March 2007
