Reminding Ourselves
With prices soaring and many of us feeling the pinch in regards to our discretionary money, it is time to reawaken to the simple joys and ideas of entertainment that doesn't cost a reverse mortgage or a trip to the good ol' blood bank to strap up and sell off some of the family plasma.First of all we are a tax paying country whose funds are automatically striped off to pay for various services and protection. Sure we grumble and complain when the median of April comes arising like a robed specter from the tomb, but all of us have varying ways to benefit from the money taken, if we only open our eyes.
Parks are paid for by the public funds that states allocate from the pool of money we all contribute to. Parks of varying quality and distribution criss-cross this country in various guises and attitudes just waiting to open their arms and embrace you.
Here in Oregon, we have more parks per capita than any other state in the union. As I write this I am sitting in Laurelhurst Park, a gigantic collection of forest and emerald waves of grass featuring numerous basketball courts, tennis squares, a swan and goose friendly lake, an open air thousands of square feet of off-leash dog frolicking area and numerous BBQs, sidewalks and segues.
Speaking of segues, parks are usually free as in zero dollars, and the length of entertainment one can receive only limited by the imagination.
On my last few trips to this particular park I've seen: a Christian youth minister stand up comic espousing his beliefs on the superiority of Tom and Jerry over Sponge Bob Square Pants, a trio of cavorting Capoeira masters with accompany bow and string Brazilian music having mock battles and routines, a series of different breeds of canines calling out and playing king of the plains in defiance of leash laws, a full size tortoise being walked by his owner mollifying every dog in the park to cravenly turn tail and bolt, and an honest to goodness komodo dragon on a pink leash.
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