Walking to the library late yesterday afternoon, I overheard some boys talking to each other.<\/p>\n
"I’m only in fourth grade," said one, "and I’m not allowed to leave the house, yet I know my way around this city."<\/p>\n
He’s not allowed to leave the house without supervision? Wow.<\/p>\n
Before I entered school in second grade in Cooranbong, Australia, I wandered around the bush chopping down trees and blazing trails. By fifth grade, I was leaving the house early every morning for a two mile run. Then it was two-mile bike ride to school.<\/p>\n
By seventh grade, I was running more than six miles a day. On Sundays, I’d take off early in the morning with a little money in my pocket and just run and walk most of the day and stop into stores and buy lemonade and candy.<\/p>\n
I spent the summer between eight and ninth grade in Washington D.C. where again I’d just take off and spend the day walking around the city.<\/p>\n
When my brother was 14, he’d hitchhike 60 miles each way on a Sunday to go to these races.<\/p>\n
In high school on many Friday nights in winter, I’d tell my parents I was going to a Bible study and then I’d run and walk the two miles into town and cover basketball games for the Auburn Journal.<\/p>\n
I grew up with a lot of space. At home, I made sure to play by the rules. Outside of the home, I collected Playboy and Penthouse magazines and stashed them in the woods for after-school inspiration before returning to the cold Christ-centered tyranny of evangelical Christianity.<\/p>\n
Once at an Orthodox Jewish home in the Aish HaTorah community, I heard the mother say she’d given her son a Penthouse magazine and a jar of vaseline for his bar mitzvah.<\/p>\n
With such goodies, the boy will never want to leave the house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Walking to the library late yesterday afternoon, I overheard some boys talking to each other. "I’m only in fourth grade," said one, "and I’m not allowed to leave the house, yet I know my way around this city." He’s not … Continue reading