slide

Here we see the first expression of a universal human need…the need to be thrilled. As we grow older that need may find less innocent modes of expression. The skydiver’s first step out of the plane was taken by a child’s foot on the ladder to the top of the slide. The anxious pleasure of the ski-jumper at the top of the slope was first experienced by the child at the top of the slide. Even the junkie’s surrender to the drug is a warped echo of the child’s surrender to gravity.

But here on the playground, a child’s delight in yielding to the warm embrace of a copper-colored slide reveals the purity of the experience. There is a sweetness that reminds us of another essential human desire; the hope…the belief…that the thrill ends with us safely on the ground.

September 13, 2005 -- greg fallis

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