Boxes 2nd edition

To an adult a box is a box. A cardboard cube, a boring bin. An adult packs boxes to the brim with knick knacks and this and that to be moved from here to there or anywhere.

They will not stop to play with the box, will not crawl inside the box, and grownups will not decorate the box. They don't understand.

But children know that a box is more than just a box. We know the truth because even though we are smaller, and younger, and somewhat more wild, we are also wiser, and relaxed, and somewhat more clever.

A new toy can only be that one toy...but the box it arrived in? The sky is the limit to what it can be. The sky is the limit as to what we can see.

Boxes turn into robots with holes cut for little arms, legs, and faces. We can’t draw on our new toys, it is a rule, but no one will fuss if we add life, and dials and switches to our machine suit. Grownups do not remember robot-speak, but kids CAN - BE - THE – ROBOT.

On a chilly autumn day, Mom will wrap us in our turtlenecks and scarves. We fill a box with red, orange, and yellow leaves and create a pit to pounce in. Beware! Creepy bugs may crawl up our arms and legs. Parents will only be happy that the yard is clean; they don't understand the prize in a fall blanket.

In the winter, if snow is scarce, flattened boxes are sleds that soar down steep, grass-covered hills. We love zooming down, down, down and tumbling in a pile at the bottom of the ride. Who needs snow to fly?

After a move to a new house, a million boxes are left empty. What a kingdom these boxes can make! Big, small, and medium sized, the boxes create a castle of turrets, drawbridges, dungeons, and moats. In a flash, we can escape to our fortress to defend our freedom from dragons, sorcerers, naps, and little brothers.

A giant box can be a candy land cottage. Let’s use Mama's old, red tablecloth for curtains. Borden milk cartons can be flower boxes, and we can draw our picket fence with a white crayon. Because we are decorating our box, we can color family portraits, wallpaper patterns, or a fancy chandelier its walls. Interior design by Crayola. Adults think walls are only to hold up buildings. If they only knew!

"All Aboard!" Several boxes create the boxcars of the Santa Fe Express rumbling along the Pecos Valley Railway. While exploring the Wild, Wild West, we are pioneers of the plains racing a buffalo stampede and escorting covered wagons from town to town. We barely escape an outlaw robbery by Jesse James riding past the freight cars, gun blazing.

In which season of someone's life does a box turn back into a box? Boxes don’t have to turn back into boxes, you know? Kids, when confronted with cardboard, we must promise to remind those grownups what fun it can be to think outside the box.