And yet when the father sees him, he essentially yells, “olly olly oxen free,” it’s safe to come home! Maybe also the story of Zacchaeus hiding in a tree (and maybe behind his position as tax collector and sinner?) and Jesus seeing him and telling him he would be going to his home that day? (Luke 19). The father gives permission for the younger son to go and hide, when the younger son runs out of financial resources and safe places to be, he decides to head back home defeated and no small amount of humbled. When I look at that game from a distance, it has the feel of the prodigal son story in the gospel of Luke, ch. There are reasons children play games, even old-timey non-computerized kinds – we know that, but sometimes do we know that? And yet, when it’s time for the game to end, the yell is for everyone to come back in safely, that they are free. You hide trying not to be found so that you can perhaps run to home base safely before they either catch you where you’re hiding or race back to home base before you.
You flee from the home base and the person at home can’t watch where you go. Looking back on the rhythm of hide and seek – it has an interesting adult-looking-back depth. Maybe our anger is a little angrier, our sadness a little more sorrow-full, and conversely maybe our happiness a little more joy-full – I hope and am more hope-full! What I’ve said numerous times during 2020 is that I don’t particularly think this virus deal has caused unique differences in who we always were, I think it has simply magnified certain parts of our lives at different times. Why is it this time of year, and maybe particularly THIS year, I get nostalgic and reflective about the years of childhood? It started cooling down and misting yesterday and today it’s even colder and still gray and coldly damp.
#Oly oly oxenfree free
And then if the place you found was good enough, or your mom hollered to come in for supper, the “it” would holler “olly olly oxen free!” Can you hear the sing-song nature of it? So I looked it up, the wisdom of google says it’s the variation of the German phrase “alle alle auch sind frei” loosely translated as everyone, everyone is free – in other words it’s safe to come in – you’re free to come back to home base. You couldn’t go too far away, there were always boundaries, but no matter how close or far to home base, my heart would always be beating so fast while whomever was “it” started searching. While someone was standing facing a tree with their eyes CLOSED, how often did that really happen, they would count to 100 and at 97 they’d start yelling 97, 98, 99, 100!!! Here I come!!! How many places would we look to hide before finding the exact best one? Behind a tractor tire, in the bed of the pick-up, behind mom’s peony bushes laying as flat as possible? That was outdoor hide and seek, the only real way to play the game from my perspective. Did you have a favorite? It probably depended on the day for me, maybe it does for all kids, but hide and go seek was my fall back I think.
Hide and seek, capture the flag, red rover-red rover, tag or the variation – freeze tag? What were your favorite games as a kid? You know, before there was minecraft, or fortnight, or for us oldies, bejeweled and xbox or playstation 1-100.
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