An FB friend Jeffrey had posted a status which talked of an interesting story:
“Today i read a story about an anthropologist who proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids that who ever got there first won the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said:
“UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad? “
UBUNTU is ancient African word which means ‘humanity to others.’ In Africa it is also expressed as ” I am because of who we all are.”
Henri Frederic Amiel ( 1821-1881) was absolutely correct when he said:
“Blessed be childhood, which brings down something of heaven into the midst of our rough earthliness.”
“Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child’s soul” , had remarked Friedrich Froebel, founder of Kindergarten.
Yet another example of play which truly reflects the quote: “Necessity may be the mother of invention, but play is certainly the father”, by Roger von Ooech is evident in the picture below
They see no walls, just gaps as openings large enough to hold hands.
Smiles from children are packaged sunshine and rainbows…
For sure, money does not buy happiness. They share with each other, whatever their riches are- their smiles, their companionship and their playfulness.
( This pic is courtesy another FB friend, Kamran, and was published in his ‘Dateline Islamabad’ ).
Lessons to learn from these children?
Loads of them, perhaps.