October 8, 2014 (Wednesday)
One of the “after-school and before-supper” activities we enjoyed as little kids was “Ring Around the Rosie.” I got to thinking, “What does that mean?” so I looked it up and was shocked to read that it was composed of references to the Bubonic Plague.
I read on and found that Snopes gives several other possible meanings of the rhyme. We sang it when holding hands and walking around in a circle, the walk ending when we all voluntarily dropped to the ground singing “we all fall down.” One of several alternate explanations for the activity had to do with the ban on dancing by most Protestants in the 18th Century in Britain and North America. Adolescents found a way around the ban by holding hands, etc. and singing the rhyme.
Teen agers plotting to have fun together makes more sense to me than gleefully singing about death and a horrible plague. Anyway, when we were little kids we enjoyed doing “Ring Around the Rosie” because of the physical activity, the yelling and the laughing that went with it.
We did all that while awaiting our calls to supper. Other activities were “Leap Frog,” “Hide and Seek,” “May I?” “Simon Says,” and whatever else we could create to have fun. We were kids. Outside. Playing. Having fun. The way it ought to be.
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DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT
Jesus referred to children’s games when he told the religious leaders of His day that their petty attitudes reminded Him of children playing. Some of them played “Wedding” and others played “Funeral.” Jesus told the leaders that their insistence that everyone had to conform to their ideas was childish behavior, without meaning as far as God was concerned. (Read about it in Matthew 11:16ff). The admonitions to religious leaders, in modern terms: “Don’t sweat the small stuff; pay attention to the big picture.” Love God. Love your fellow human beings. That’s what Jesus