Thinking Outside the Box but Living Inside the Box

I had an interesting experience earlier this week at the elementary school where I currently am working. Something just hit me as an analogy that I want to share. I hope it makes sense, as I haven’t had time to analyze it in-depth:

I was walking past the Speech Therapy room and saw the therapist sitting inside a cardboard box, playing with a very young, Special Education student who was standing outside the box. It was a unique, striking image.

When I saw the therapist later I asked her about how she came to be sitting inside the box. She said the student had seen the box, climbed in, and played for a few minutes. He then had climbed out, grabbed her leg, and tried to lift it into the box. He is almost completely non-verbal, but she realized he wanted her to have a turn playing in the box. Apparently, it was important to him that they share the enjoyment he had felt while in the box, so she climbed in and pretended to play while he watched happily.

We talk all the time about the importance of thinking outside the box, but we also tend to need a degree of stability in our lives that often comes only through a connection to people living solidly in the box. Explorers often return to the company of settlers long enough to see family, eat a home-cooked meal, sleep in a soft bed, and re-energize before they leave for their next adventure. Kites only fly properly when they are attached to a string that “grounds” them.

I definitely tend to think outside the box, but I live solidly in the box, generally speaking. I have worked on developing that delicate balance for many years, and I see it as a manifestation of “moderation in all things”. Although it is a difficult balancing act at times, the balance it provides is important to me.

I don’t know exactly how this might apply to any individual at the site, but I do know it was important for that young child whose life is far outside the box to be able to be in the box for a short time and to have someone else who is solidly in the box available to help him with his outside-the-box issues.