Eric's Beijing Diary

This week in Langfang we were talking about the force/distance relationship, such as is demonstrated by a block and tackle. I drew an illustration of the elevator I built when I was a kid. I climbed the old oak tree in our front yard, carrying a pulley in my pocket. I worked my way to the top of this tree, and tied the pulley to a branch. Then I ran a rope through it, and fastened a board, for a seat, on one end. While I was drawing my picture, I asked them how many of them had built a tree house when they were young. None of them had. I was incredulous. I asked them then if any of them had been in a treehouse. One of them said, "We've never even seen a treehouse."

"You've never seen a treehouse?!"

"Yes, never."

I asked them why they had not had this experience. Some of them mentioned the fact that they had grown up in the city. But I pressed the issue, "Didn't you have trees where you lived?" One of them finally said, "There were trees, but they were for the public." But who is the public if it is not kids who need treehouses? It's hard for me to imagine a childhood without a treehouse. I wonder how this question will be answered a generation from now, when a whole country of kids will have grown up with the protection of private
property actually written into the constitution.