There’s a game I’m very fond of. It doesn’t actually have a name. I call it jailBreak. It goes something like this. One becomes relationally intimate with someone who, it turns out, is in a cage of some kind and can’t get out. Of course, usually we are in some kind of cage ourselves, too. Sometimes there are lots of cages, or even nested cages.

The game involves a form of inspiring magical engineering, which is a bit like hacking, where mutual concern, care, love, curiosity and imagination represent the tools of the locksmith. The goal is to shed as many cages as possible, in the most beautiful way, together.

Uncommon children are skillful at this game. It seems that very few adults still play… or even remember it. But there are a few. And every once in a while, some smart-ass kid comes along and recruits a few more.