Hide and seek
Those were happy days, the ones where all the kids on my street played hide and seek. We played outdoors, and I remember the rush of the count down, the hurry to find a place to hide. It was so exciting, with the running every which way, children scattering in all directions. Once a suitable hiding place was found, we would hunker down, silently waiting and anticipating the person that was “it”, finding us one-by-one or two-by-two, if we happened to have a hiding partner. We couldn’t leave our spot, for fear of being noticed; no one wanted to be the first one out, in fact, everyone wanted to be the winner, the last one to be discovered.
We played until the streetlights came on, and that marked the end of one summer day, with the promise of more thrilling fun the next.
As I recall these memories, I am writing about them outdoors, with a gentle breeze moving my hair as bird’s call to one another… come out, come out, wherever you are… They are locating their others, freely singing and chirping. It is a glorious sound of freedom.
Back to hide and seek
At the end of a particularly long game of hide and seek, the one who was “it” sometimes called out “Olly Olly in come free”, when they could not find their hidden friends. (I have learned that the original expression is Olly Olly oxen free). This calling out would officially end the round or the game entirely, cuing everyone to expose their hiding place and come out into the open air, in full view of one another. Sometimes this was a relief for the hidden, because staying in one place waiting to be found, waiting to be released from the holding position in silence felt excruciatingly eternal! The game stopped being fun when being found took way too long and when someone else was in charge of us being released from our hiding.
Dear reader, at the risk of sounding obvious, aren’t you being asked to play the same game? Are you, a thinking adult, playing a child’s game, with someone WHO has called themselves “it” and asked you to hide, until they decide when to call the game? Are you waiting for someone else to switch the streetlights on, so that the game will end?
Logical thought evaporated
I find it scary, how logical thought has evaporated in favour of fear that plays possum depending on our personal needs. We are out in the world, no matter what anyone says, and I just don’t see corpses lining the streets. I see lots of people out and about, acting like they have forgotten there is a pandemic to panic over, even as they continue to mask themselves. They aren’t waiting for someone to call Olly Olly oxen free, and this brings me to an embarrassing point: are we to be cattle called and prodded dear one? Are we to be herded: and told what when where how and WHO…
(C)kowtowing
Might I suggest, that you refuse to line up to give your money away? Might I suggest, you patronize stores that do not make you wait? Might I suggest, that if you are a business owner, you start owning your business again, and stop (c)kowtowing to the people who have decided that you are to hide, and that it is up to them when you get released from your silently held position of waiting to be found. Might I finally suggest, that you dear reader can logically conclude when it is “safe” to come out based on deductive reasoning?
 |
| It is safe to peek |
Hide and seek is a childish form of exciting entertainment. Usually, fairness rules dictate that everyone takes turns being the seeker and the hidden. This game has gone global, and it is the rules that are hidden by those that have decided to tell us to hide, while they seek to “serve and protect us. “
Shrug: I may be speaking to the choir (meaning you never went into hiding), or are you one of the hidden, ready to come out and really play? No one is going to tell you when the game is over, and this is my point:
· Why should they?
· Why did you go into hiding in the first place?
· Why were you so willing to be told what to do and why are you so willing to continue to comply?
WHO, are they, to tell you, what to do?
Fearlessly faithful
Olly Olly, in come free. That is my call, to the wild and wonderful, the brave, the bold, and the fearlessly faithfully. I call to my others, and await their cheerful response.
God is in charge of the light switch
Of David. “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1).
Note: Sometimes the hidden were not found, and they didn’t hear the game being called as done: you don’t want to stay in hiding, while everyone else has moved on, now do you?
