IS LIFE A PLAYGROUND OR THE BATTLEFIELD?

By: Tshamani Mathebula

Everyone faces challenges at some point in their lives. If you are not going through something right now, chances are some challenge is rearing its head and will appear at any time. These challenges have an impact on how we see life. In some cases they make us stronger as we learn and grow from the experiences. In other instances, they unfortunately make people become hard and start to be afraid of life. Others also become cynical, untrusting and negative.

As a parent, I am very interested in how my children are experiencing life as well as how it affects their mindset. One Sunday morning before going to church, I asked the above question to my bambinos. Both of them, without batting an eyelid said it's a battlefield. I thought to myself, jeez! What kind of mother am I? What am I subjecting them to for them to think like that?

After Church we took over from where we left off. The one bambino said she has changed her mind; the other one said she still thinks it's a battlefield.

Listening to her I could hear the emotion of hurt and anger because of the bullying she experienced at school. I had to teach her to stand up for herself. She feels that she has to fight off the bullies in order to have peace. The sad thing is that because of the bullying she will approach life with a negative mindset.

Back to the question “is life a playground or a battlefield”? I would like us to answer the question by looking at the following characteristics of both fields.

The BATTLEFIELD:

· Everyone you encounter is an enemy;

· For you to win or get what you want you must kill and destroy to make sure that the enemy never comes back to retaliate;

· After winning you can only rejoice for only a while because another enemy is waiting on the wings to kill and destroy you;

· You don't trust anyone. Even your closest friends and family because they can be easily bought and sell you out;

· Your guard is always up. You protect yourself and don't let anyone in;

· You end up being lonely with no one to celebrate your spoils with;

· Even the camaraderie with fellow comrades is short-lived because the enemy can strike at any time;

· There’s lots of anguish, pain and confrontation.

The PLAYGROUND:

· Place of fun, happiness and joy;

· The player from another team is a competitor;

· Everyone likes being in the playground, hence they take care of it;

· The players' aim is to win the game through skill and perseverance;

· The competitor is not interested in killing you but in winning;

· There are rules that are followed in the game of life, if u don't play by the rules the referee (God) will give u a red card;

· You trust the players until they have proven that they cannot be trusted;

· The game is taken very seriously as there is blood, sweat and tears before, during and after the game;

· When you lose (fail) you always get another opportunity to go and strategize and practice more so that when you go back to the playground u r properly prepared;

· A great player wants to play against a strong opponent to show that they deserve to be champions;

· After the game, the players shake hands n congratulate each other.

So, what do you think, is life supposed to be the PLAYGROUND or BATTLEFIELD?

What about your relationships, is it a battlefield or a playground?