children's laughter

There is not many things better than the sound of children's laughter and seeing them play without reserve or self-conscientiousness. We meandered about Millennium Park today after doing school stuff for the first several hours. The eighteen of us layed on the green, bug-less, grass of the lawn (where we will return this evening for a free outdoor concert) in Millennium Park at the Pavilion by Frank Gehry. After half an hour-ish and slightly reddened faces and arms, we strolled down to the big bean sculpture thing. It is highly reflective and seen in photographs and postcards and such. It was humorous to see children and grown children play with their distorted reflections as they touched, ran around, layed underneath, and took self portraits. We then walked down to street level where there is this water park of sorts. There is a long, rectangular plaza covered with a couple of inches of water which is continuously fed in different manners by two tall elements (that display digital images on the surfaces) on either end of the water play scape. Children cannot help but run to it and in it, even if that means just playing in their undies. Kids that knew each other not become fast friends here; everybody is welcome to whatever game another created. Hmm, why do children understand and practice so well what we mature, thinking adults cannot? Let's learn to play again - with everybody ... or at least remember to actively practice out loud laughter.