jungle gym

when we were in wyoming, on the way back to salt lake city, we stopped over on the side of the road at a town fair. i don't think any of us knew there was a fair there, it just happened to be next to the gas station.

capitalizing on this unique opportunity many of us began to walk around the little kiosks. there was a fellow in a cowboy hat with muscular dystrophy selling puppy jack russell terriers, a group of girls from a small town rodeo club, and a group selling antler artwork. in the middle of the fun was a playground set with a 15 foot jungle gym, a huge slide, teeter totters, a swingset and monkey bars. and to my astonishment the playground was barren, completely empty of people and it was in the very middle of the fair.

so i climbed the slide, a bit courageously seeing as i'm a grown man with a bunch of coworkers, and silently began sliding down it. over and over i slid down the slide, i think one time i nervously mustered out a 'wee'. after a while 3 or four little kids followed suit, and because i didn't want to hog the slide, moved on to the jungle gym.

now that the initial fear was gone, i was like a monkey. i was swinging, hanging upside down, standing on the top and waving to the girls, and soon i found that two of my coworkers were playing on the teeter totters having a good time. we were laughing! next, it was on to the monkey bars. surprisingly i can still skip two bars at a time and make it across. a couple of adults in our group were waiting in line for the slide, and somebody else was crawling up the jungle gym. it was a complete blast, and i finished with incredibly sore muscles and a renewed spirit.

when did exercise stop being fun? why is it that if i want to strengthen my abs i must regimentally sit up, counting methodically to a predetermined number? what happened to swing sets?

why is it that when i need to get my heart rate up i run in a circle, keeping track of my pulse and the number of laps i've completed. what happened to tag?

why is it that in order to build muscle i must pay $60.00 a month to a warehouse that stores weights attached to pulleys, and under the pale glow of a florescent light stare at a wall and mechanically flex? what happened to jungle gyms?

moreover, what happened to exploring the area around the house? climbing a tree, just because it's there? who was given the authority to forbid me from having fun?