This past Friday the boys and I headed to the zoo with my good friend Dana, her two kids and her nephew.
Nathan was beyond excited and all giddy and giggly. It had been about a year and a half since we went due to my being pregnant last summer (preeclampsia and 97 degree weather don't mix)
It was a perfect zoo day. It wasn't very crowded because it was 63 degrees and cloudy so we were able to casually take our time choosing what to see next.
Before lunch we decided to stop at the playground and let the kids get a little energy out.
Dana and I sat there chit chatting while Luke happily laughed on my lap watching the kids play.
In the midst of the occasional mom comments ("Nathan- don't throw mulch" and "Oh ough- he fell- is he ok?" and "stop banging sticks on the metal pole- it's annoying") I kept hearing "arrrrrr" pirate noises with the occasional "aye aye captian."
In their imagination the kids had turned the jungle gym into a pirate ship and were oblivious to the real world. In their minds sticks became swords, the wooden bridge became the plank, and the surrounding mulch became shark infested waters.
It seemed that in the blink of an eye it was easy for them to see things for no longer what they actually were- but for what they could become.
After smiling at their play I turned to Dana and said something along the lines of "When did we lose that? The ability to see things differenty? To get lost in imagination?"
Sometime in the whirlwind of puberty and pimples or even long before that- we loose the ability to truly get lost in the world of make-believe.
When I play with Nathan we pretend the Lego house is a castle and that the hangers are swords- but do those items morph into something my brain dreams up? No. But they still do for Nathan.
And then Dana and I started laughing at the idea of "what if..."
"What if our imagination didn't fade as we grow?"
What if as a mom I suddenly imagined that the grocery aisle was a castle and I began pretending to sword fight my way to the produce section?
What if while folding laundry I dove into the pile of clean baby clothes and rolled around thinking I was in a field of flowers?
What if it was acceptable to be late to work because the whole town broke out into a spontaneous musical number where people who never met before somehow knew the same choreography? (that.would.be.awesome!)
And what if everytime I found myself on a balcony I dreamed I was Juliet being wooed by her Romeo?
Hmmm....
Unfortunately I don't think this would work out too well.
The safety of the world just might be in jeopardy if as adults our imagination allowed us to slip easily between reality and play.
God knew what he was doing when he gave children the most active imagination and not adults.
Although...
This could explain why some people seem crazy....maybe they aren't really crazy...maybe they just didn't lose their imagination?
Perhaps.
No comments:
Post a Comment