Michael: Play Date

Yellow tailed black bird
Swoops gracefully through the air
Going for its prey.

Monday, October 24, 2016

A couple of weeks ago Kimme and I decided to switch up our routine a little. Instead of just doing a recovery run on Monday we decided to throw in a little play, like tossing a Frisbee or playing catch to add some variety, loosen the structure of one of our workouts, and to enjoyably work on skills that we don’t get through running, riding, lifting and whatever else we do.

But the question was where could we go that was near enough not to make this a hassle. There’s isn’t a park close by but there is a school with a very large field. The problem with that is school here starts pretty early and I wasn’t sure if it was acceptable to use a field while school is in session. As a primary teacher in the states for 25 years I know adults who weren’t school employees wouldn’t be allowed onto the grounds without an office pass, and no sane adult would ask to play on the field while school was in session. Even an adult walking slowly enough around the outside of our school was enough to draw suspicion.

So our plan of action was to go to the school, Frisbee in hand, start tossing and see what happened. Last week, nothing. This week, nothing again. It seems so long as we play where we’re not a distraction a live and let live policy is in place.

I like that. I like that there isn’t a huge sign outside of the school that details what isn’t permitted on school grounds. Common sense seems to rule here as opposed to the paranoia and fear of litigation that dominates public institutions in the states.

It may strike some of the parents here bringing their kids to school that  walking into school without children but intending to act like ones is odd, but they don’t seem the least bit threatened by us, nor should they.