Marbles

There is something quintessentially diverting about playing marbles; almost as much so as grown men building perpetual motion machines in their basement. Many people are afraid of participating in diversions, or a plethora of other activities, for fear of what people will think of certain diversions and the fact that "people will talk"...the reality is people do little else. It is likely that if people spent half as much time with diversions as talking, the world would be a better place. The trouble is that though diversions - that is, pass times - are not meant to be an end to themselves but rather a means to an end, of which is rejuvenation, they are often made into ends. And means that are made into ends often end up being very mean, indeed. But that should not divert one from diversions. If more men constructed crafts in their wood shop with their sons or took them hunting and more women cooked meals with their daughters or did crafts with them, less sons and daughters would use hammers or guns, or kitchen knives or other knives, for nefarious purposes. Cutting a cake or shooting a dove doesn't make one less likely to cut or shoot a person, but it does employ the mind and hands towards constructive means, and reinforces parental love to the child, since, for a child, love is often spelled T-I-M-E.