To the tree house general!

Just had a piece on tree houses published in Urbanite Magazine which you can see here. 

When I was probably in fourth grade or so my mom and I built a tree house. I think we did it for under $40 dollars. Compared to these tree houses it probably looked like a under $40 tree house. I loved it though. It had three levels, a rope swing, fireman's pole, pull-up slash trapeze bar, one of those disk swings and a screened in sandbox...which I think mostly turned into a cage to lock my sister in. 

That tree house was great. I learned that cologne was very flammable in that tree house. I learned that you can fall ten feet in the dark onto your arm and not break it. I learned that if you Tarzan swing into one of those kiddy pools with whales and dolphins on the side you can recreate a tsunami. I learned how to hunt lizards. I learned how to escape. 

Escaping is kind of what tree houses are about right? Adults should have tree houses. I got to admit I envied the kids I was photographing a little bit. A piece of me wanted to yell at them "YOU DON'T KNOW HOW GOOD YOU HAVE IT!!!!"

You have no bills to pay. People will still wrestle with you. You don't have to make your own snacks. You get free food. You don't have to worry about your professional reputation when fake shooting all your friends with your fake guns. The opposite sex is a mystery you feel no need to solve. You have to put effort into getting fat. No one looks at you in a disgusted manner if you want to take a nap.  

Unfortunately, if you yell these things at a child, you immediately have to admit in writing to the world that you are old and bitter. I am not ready for that quite yet, so I just took some pictures and went and bought some fruit snacks.