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''' ''ANGELS -!WOW!- ANGLES '' ''' :
THE ECOSYSTEM 2011
! THE HEROIC FOUNDER FRAMERS ! : - GRANDPARENTS, PARENTS, AUNTS AND UNCLES WELCOME with open arms and virtual hugs -
The junior Founder Framers of The World Students Society, and all the Little Angels of the world : Maynah, Maria, Hanyia, Merium, Eden, Haram, Azan, Mustafa, Mujtaba, Mary, Susan, Ahmed Hassan, Muhammad Saad, Ibrahim, and darling Sofia.
PURELY IMAGINARY AT FIRST THEN INCREASINGLY REAL : LEAF TOWN STARTED IN THE FALL - DURING RECESS : To reopen for in-person learning, the small elementary school had adopted.
New protocols to prevent the spread of Covid-19 andone of those meant that the playground equipment in the nearby park was just off limits.
With their recreational routine disrupted, the kids were briefly at a loss. Then some of them piled up fallen leaves to outline the walls of a small room. They named the Everything Store, and they begin transacting commerce : purely imaginary at first then increasingly real.
A town sprang up around it. So-and-so added a hotel, now there was bank, someone built big houses, someone built little ones - whatever services and facilities the children deemed essential. The structure looked like aerial views of ancient villages where only foundations remain.
The kid / students established their own currency : a ginkgo, a rare but sustainable leaf with a distinct shape that would presumably be hard to to counterfeit. The twin thrived for weeks with a brisk trade in detritus : twigs, a charm from a wayward bracelet,. Nerf darts found in the weeds. A broken pencil might cost ten leaves, a tennis ball a hundred.
The sale of precious finds like a Matchbox car, a discarded gymnastics medal or a travel-size hand sanitizer might wipe out the money supply, requiring the banker to make another trip to the ginkgo tree. The town was booming.
We learned about Leaf Town from Rose, nine years old, a student at the school, respectively our daughter and niece. We imagined that this was how most towns developed. A suitable location was chosen, and then, as more people joined the community, needs for specialized shops and amenities arose and were met.
Stuck like the rest of us in one spot by the pandemic, the children were constructing something dense, lovely and strange, watching it take shape from their collective imaginations.
''I guess it was society", Rose said. ''There were rules, sometimes a lot of them.'' Newcomers had to have a good job and enough capital to open a restaurant or to begin construction on a beauty shop or hospital.
''When I first came to Leaf Town, I didn't what as what,'' Rose said, ''so I accidentally walked through one of their houses, and everyone got mad at me. So that became a new rule : no trespassing. But it was fun, so I thought, 'I will join you!' ''
In the middle of the last century, an influential European avant-garde group called the Situationist International proposed a city with buildings that could change constantly at the whim of the inhabitants, a city in which work could be replaced by play, or be indistinguishable from it.
Constant Nieuwenhuys, the group's main architectural theorist wrote in 1963 of future city-dwellers who would ''be present at an uninterrupted process of creation and recreation, sustained by a generalized creativity that is manifested in all domains of activity.
What the Situationists sought, in essence, was a way for adults to regain access to the excitement of Leaf Town. In the middle of an isolating pandemic, these kids were creating a vibrant kind of life that many grown-ups didn't believe was possible, even before Covid.
''We played because everyone could be part of it,'' Rose said. ''It's not as much fun to go out and find treasures on your own. It was more fun to search for treasures in the park, and bring them back to the Everything Store, and sell them there.''
By now you have probably noticed that we've been referring to Leaf Town in the past tense.
It didn't take long for the robberies to start. ''The robbers tricked us,'' Rose explained. ''They looked like normal kids, and then when we took our money out, they would grab all our leaves and run. It made me sad, and pretty mad.''
Before the spate of robberies, the kids had left their stashes of trinkets and leaf currency out at the park overnight, secreted under trees or brushes. Now it seemed that one child, then two, then many had to become police officers; an entire force.
A jail was also needed. The children began hoarding their currency, stuffing it into lunchboxes, hats, gloves and socks. They had become obsessive. The teachers took note, and put an end to the game.
The Honor and Serving of this very beautiful story and works, continues. The World Students Society hanks authors, Beth Rooney and Kathleen Rooney.
With respectful dedication to The Little Angels of the world, and then, Grandparents, Parents, Students, professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :
''' Loop- Laps '''
Good Night and God Bless
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