CalvinBall: Nostalgia for an Era Past

At our church staff meeting this morning we took a fairly random trip down memory lane laughing at the great games we used to play with our youth groups at Crossroads Bible Church (back in the old days when I was still a youth pastor). As always, the trip was covered with a misty veneer that seems to wrap itself around most memories of the "way-things-used-to-be" - the mist that makes things look better than it really was. But it does seem a bit sad that there really is no longer any "risk" to much of what we do and it that play now has to be absolutely safe ... if anyone even plays anymore! Maybe its the insurance companies, maybe its parents, or maybe its just common sense but play has eliminated some great games. We used to create take offs of classic CalvinBall or Official 43 Man Squamish (of course we rewrote and codified all sorts of new rules for this one - including the mandatory non-binding pledge to play the game with all seriousness). I remember, as a kid, being able to make up games on the spur of the moment and getting all of the Ratner Street gang to join in. I'm not sure that kids in my neighborhood today could do that. I'm not sure parents would let them? Maybe I've just become old... but that's a discussion for later.