When I talked to my sister, Karen, on Saturday night, she said that her plans for the week-end, weather permitting, were to take the kids to one of those monumentous corn mazes in Minnesota (or maybe it was Wisconsin. Somewhere in the heartland..........)

Karen had accompanied her son’s pre-school class on a field trip to the apple orchard last week. One of the attractions at the orchard was a mini-maze for the kids. This clever maze had been constructed out of that bright plastic mesh stuff that is used for fences, etc. The walls of the maze were tall enough that 4 year olds were truly challenged to figure their way out. While their parental units, a few feet taller, could easily see which way to go. Karen reported that her nerves were on edge from listening to all the moms direct their little ones on how to find their way thru. Exercising the control that must be possessed by a candidate for District Attorney, she refrained from yelling, “Shut the @*$#&% up and let the kids do their own thinking.” But she was thinking it.

During the course of our discussion, I said that I thought this orange vinyl maze was something of a metaphor for life. Parents can see things more clearly. And the temptation to give more direction than is necessary is always there. Just as a mother who might see a deep hole ahead in the maze should warn a child, we should warn our kids when we see pitfalls imperiling faith, morals, or safety. But so often, I think the temptation is there just to spare our children the hard work of learning things the hard way. From our perspective, be it height or age, we can see things that they can’t. It is such hard work to keep our mouths shut and let them wander about the maze learning the lessons that must be learned.