Digging for Hidden Treasure

"There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life that he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure."                                                                                                                                                                      Mark Twain

I love this quote and the magical, exploratory time of childhood it represents. It evokes a time gone by, however. How many boys (or girls) are heading out into the great outdoors to search for hidden treasure today?

I read an article recently about how dramatically the space that children are allowed to explore unhindered by adult supervision has shrunk in the matter of 4 generations. The example cited shows a great grandfather allowed to walk 6 miles to go fishing while the modern day 8 year old is allowed to go to the end of the block.

I doubt that we can or even should go back to the freedom that children had in days gone by but I mourn for the hidden treasures that will remain undiscovered.

Thank you to Casey, the "Tom Sawyer" in the image above, for still being a boy eager to discover the world around him and perhaps go digging once in a while.