April 16: Project 2

A couple of weekends ago I got a fun opportunity to revisit the local playground.  The park has slides and even a suspended bridge, but, just like when I was a kid, I found myself drawn to the swings.  The chains are long enough to make a child feel daring, but safe with sand at the base for leaping off.  As an adult I was able to appreciate the picturesque quality of the oak and sycamore trees that shielded the swings from the sun's rays and provided a potential goal for a stretched-out toe as a swinging child reached his or her highest point of the swinging arc.  As a kid, I would race for the swings to claim one for recess time.  Playing on the swings was fun, competitive, freeing, and therapeutic as I tried to make the most of the 20 minutes I had on a day that we were allowed to play outside.  I still love a good swing set, and I am not against developing a few callouses if given the chance to be "Queen of the Swings" for a time.

Project 2 is an ode to swings.  I used OpenOffice to set up my slide show.  Each slide is framed by trees.  The "back and forth" slides employ motion to emulate the movement of swings.  I had a lot of fun locating images of swings because each one seemed to capture not only the action of swings but the spirit of them as well.  During a couple of slides, I was able to attach the sound of children playing.  The sights, sounds, motions, and words of the poem all try to capture my love for swings.  The last slide has an attachment (click on the image) of a Robert Louis Stevenson poem called "The Swings."  I had no idea that the author of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Hyde and I shared a passion for swings!

"To Touch the Sky"