I Believe in Swing Sets

I believe in never getting rid of old swing sets. I believe in sliding down the slides, and when you're on the swing, swinging your hardest, making the whole thing shake. I believe in the childhood memories that we share, and that running up and down the ladders is the foundation of your life, it's who you become. Swing sets are the safes that we store our childhood in, and that the safe must never be emptied.

I believe waiting for your father to come home and being too impatient for him to come, so you push your legs back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, until you finally learn how to swing. I believe in the father pushing his child and the mother catching her the first time she tries to jump out. I believe in the memories made on swing sets.

I have faith in the slowly deteriorating wood during your tween years as you and your overweight body sit on the swing, pushing yourself, letting all your emotions out and going back to being a child. I believe in swing sets being emotional outlets, in always going back to being a child to find the emotional security we all crave.

I trust that those wood bars that fall out after the long years of rain and heat will still be there even after all those years of the sun bearing down on that poor, beat up piece of woodwork, that the dark, rain soaked lumber will still stand, even only as infrastructure. Because the last thing to go is always the frame. I believe in watching the dog run around the yard as a high-schooler, in laughing as he jumps up on your lamp. I believe in giggling as the two of you swing together.

I believe in being middle aged and going back to your childhood home, to the house your parents used to own, and sitting on the old rickety swing-set that your mother could never sell, and simply crying, feeling the comfort of your childhood all around you. I have trust that the frame will still be standing, still holding its shape.

I believe in being old and gray and knowing that you're going to die, and looking at that swing set that has been with you for all these years, in looking at the old rotten wood and the rusty nuts and bolts that have broken and fallen out while still keeping a smile on your face. I believe in looking at the old plastic screen and knowing that your childhood is still with you, even at the very end.

So yes, I believe in never throwing swing sets out, because those swing sets and childhood memories are the frame of your entire life, of who you are. We can always fall back on it; it never goes away, this I believe.