It all started with a mouse

When I was growing up, I, like most other kids my age, was a walking fantasy. I would pretend to live in a castle, cut my barbies' hair at the barbie salon, which never seemed to grow back, build a fort in the forest, hide from secret ops.... My imagination was loony, ludicrous, and unreasonable, but I loved it. My mom would anxiously wait to hear my latest story and listen in awe as I told her about my adventures. She always allowed me to feel alive through my imagination and never tried to deter me from such silly fun.

Today it is hard to fathom where that childhood imagination goes. Video games, movies, board games, and computers consume the majority of kids' time these days. Very little time is spent outside playing or inside a room without an electronic means of entertainment. It makes me wonder how this affects a child's development, both mentally and emotionally. Creativity and emotional involvement versus a reformatted detached game that requires little foreward thinking.

Speaking of imagination, in 1909, when Walt Disney was seven years old he was hired to work at the Kansas City Star newspaper. Did you know that later he was fired from the paper because of a lack of creativity. Years later The Disney Company bought ABC which owned The Kansas City Star. How strange that one of America’s best loved film makers was fired because he was "not creative enough". Just goes to show what little you can tell from a child and what huge potential they have.

In Walt's later years, when asked about his success as a film maker, cartoonist, and the world’s largest entertainment conglomerate, Disney replied, "I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse.”

The world we live in now would not even be recognizable to Walt Disney. Our children will not be able to play outside alone, or explore on their bikes until dark, as I did. How will we cope with this change? How will we ensure that our children have the imagination, curiosity, and mental capabilities that we have without being a robot that is plugged into an electrical outlet?

I for one am going to take this very seriously when we have children. The alternative is just too frightening.