Childhood
I read a disturbing post at Simply Wait. About kids laughing more than adults, at a rate of 400 times a day for kids, and 15 for adults. And all through it, I kept wanting to shout, NO, no, it doesn't have to be that way.
I don't know how anyone gets through a day without laughing. I laugh when the cat almost trips me up on my early morning rush to the bathroom, til he flops down on us at night. I make D laugh whenever I have a chance. I make it a point to amuse my patients and the people I work with. Sometimes it is a quiet chuckle, sometimes a belly laugh, but life is a funny thing.
And as for kids "owning" other pure pleasures...
*Running for pure pleasure
Ok, granted my knees hurt too much to do it often, but I will do an arms in the air dance down any sidewalk when I feel good. Out walking with D, do a pirouette and a spin from his hand. I didn't much run as a kid, although I scraped my knees often enough. Probably to do with the hard orthopedic shoes. I enjoy moving fast through any space, which I why I have a cracked knuckle from 3 years ago, innumerable bruises and surprise scrapes that I find long after I acquire them.
*Climbing
Ah, well, there is the lack of good trees. But I will walk any wall.
*Cannonballing into cold water on a hot day
See, I never liked this when I was a kid. Water painfully up the nose, for one thing. But I am much more willing to walk in the rain, especially a thunderstorm. I don't mind the cold so much, and I am so much braver now.
*Playing dress up (without needing to shop for designer clothes and matching accessories.)
A talent of bellydancers. Gimme some tricot and a floaty scarf, and I'm swirling with the other bulgy women, feeling fancy. I've never paid full price for any "designer" clothing...thrift shops being what they are.
*Catching fireflies in jars.
Not the fault of adulthood. Pesticides have reduced the number greatly, there really are not many of them now. I would probably prefer to just enjoy a meadow full of them of an evening, not needing to trap them to see the wonder.
*Jump rope
Ok, knees again. Not fair to hammer on about it. I do better with hula-hoops now.
*Hopscotch
Always a boring game, and the neighborhood girls made me go last. Big deal, any kids that like it can have it.
*Skipping (tell the truth, when was the last time you saw an adult skip? Not that I'd particularly want to see it, but still...)
I skip. I skip with D, who stopped sometime in grade school- it being 'babyish'. We skipped for joy when first going out, while laughing, and never stopped.
*Playing make-believe and having no one question whether you plagiarized the characters or the dialogue.
I write. Instead of make-believe with other girls telling me how my story should go, I tell my stories however I feel. No more damn "Sleeping Beauty," ugh.
*Putting on a real baseball uniform and having your family watch you play--not because you're a superstar, just because it's fun.
Egads. Never did that in the first place. What kind of not-poor-like-me childhood are we talking? Not that I gave a rats about baseball.
I don't have to play house anymore, I have my own apartment, that I clean and decorate exactly the way I want. I can walk through mud puddles, which I do when I have my boots on. Instead of getting yelled at, and then having cold wet feet. I don't have to wash dishes after every meal to someone else's satisfaction, in my own home. I please my own sense of clean, to my own satisfaction. I do not have to drink a glass of milk with every meal. I don't have to iron my clothes, unless I want to. I can stand on my couch, if I feel like it. I can sulk if I am moody.
I get very angry at nostalgia about childhood. It was awful, and the laughter is in part a defensive stress release for misery and lack of control. A well lived adulthood beats childhood hands down. I do have to follow orders and comply with rules at work, but my bosses have to answer to the law, and their bosses as well. I chose my work. I can, after all, quit. I had no such choice as a child, no options, no escape of any kind. No safe place, nor any means to find one.
I shall have a cup of tea, and some chocolate, then go make D laugh.
I don't know how anyone gets through a day without laughing. I laugh when the cat almost trips me up on my early morning rush to the bathroom, til he flops down on us at night. I make D laugh whenever I have a chance. I make it a point to amuse my patients and the people I work with. Sometimes it is a quiet chuckle, sometimes a belly laugh, but life is a funny thing.
And as for kids "owning" other pure pleasures...
*Running for pure pleasure
Ok, granted my knees hurt too much to do it often, but I will do an arms in the air dance down any sidewalk when I feel good. Out walking with D, do a pirouette and a spin from his hand. I didn't much run as a kid, although I scraped my knees often enough. Probably to do with the hard orthopedic shoes. I enjoy moving fast through any space, which I why I have a cracked knuckle from 3 years ago, innumerable bruises and surprise scrapes that I find long after I acquire them.
*Climbing
Ah, well, there is the lack of good trees. But I will walk any wall.
*Cannonballing into cold water on a hot day
See, I never liked this when I was a kid. Water painfully up the nose, for one thing. But I am much more willing to walk in the rain, especially a thunderstorm. I don't mind the cold so much, and I am so much braver now.
*Playing dress up (without needing to shop for designer clothes and matching accessories.)
A talent of bellydancers. Gimme some tricot and a floaty scarf, and I'm swirling with the other bulgy women, feeling fancy. I've never paid full price for any "designer" clothing...thrift shops being what they are.
*Catching fireflies in jars.
Not the fault of adulthood. Pesticides have reduced the number greatly, there really are not many of them now. I would probably prefer to just enjoy a meadow full of them of an evening, not needing to trap them to see the wonder.
*Jump rope
Ok, knees again. Not fair to hammer on about it. I do better with hula-hoops now.
*Hopscotch
Always a boring game, and the neighborhood girls made me go last. Big deal, any kids that like it can have it.
*Skipping (tell the truth, when was the last time you saw an adult skip? Not that I'd particularly want to see it, but still...)
I skip. I skip with D, who stopped sometime in grade school- it being 'babyish'. We skipped for joy when first going out, while laughing, and never stopped.
*Playing make-believe and having no one question whether you plagiarized the characters or the dialogue.
I write. Instead of make-believe with other girls telling me how my story should go, I tell my stories however I feel. No more damn "Sleeping Beauty," ugh.
*Putting on a real baseball uniform and having your family watch you play--not because you're a superstar, just because it's fun.
Egads. Never did that in the first place. What kind of not-poor-like-me childhood are we talking? Not that I gave a rats about baseball.
I don't have to play house anymore, I have my own apartment, that I clean and decorate exactly the way I want. I can walk through mud puddles, which I do when I have my boots on. Instead of getting yelled at, and then having cold wet feet. I don't have to wash dishes after every meal to someone else's satisfaction, in my own home. I please my own sense of clean, to my own satisfaction. I do not have to drink a glass of milk with every meal. I don't have to iron my clothes, unless I want to. I can stand on my couch, if I feel like it. I can sulk if I am moody.
I get very angry at nostalgia about childhood. It was awful, and the laughter is in part a defensive stress release for misery and lack of control. A well lived adulthood beats childhood hands down. I do have to follow orders and comply with rules at work, but my bosses have to answer to the law, and their bosses as well. I chose my work. I can, after all, quit. I had no such choice as a child, no options, no escape of any kind. No safe place, nor any means to find one.
I shall have a cup of tea, and some chocolate, then go make D laugh.
Labels: childhood
Posted by Zhoen on Monday, May 22, 2006
8 comments:
Sometimes I joke that I was born a cranky, curmugeony (spelling?) old lady, and that I'm practicing getting younger as my body ages... I agree with you. It's disturbing to think that "adults" lose--and sometimes feel they have to lose--some sense of lightness and laughter. Laugh harder, I say! And be mirthful!
And kids cry more, too.
I have learned how to laugh since becoming an adult. I mean I did as a child, but not often, and not easily.
Climbing... yes, love it. And for a long time now, the only wall climbing I've done has been literal, not figurative.
I've been lucky all my life; my friends and family (not that I consider them distinct) laugh easily and often. Like me, at some of the images in your post :-D
- running and diving onto the bed, especially hotel beds
- engaging in tickle fights with C (which I invariably lose)
- hopping up and down in enthusiasm, sometimes going so far as clapping my hands together
- very rebelliously having dessert first
- giggling at small things, making silly associations
- standing and slightly bouncing on the couch, just because it is fun and squishy
- finding inordinate pleasure in simple things
I find my biggest source of laughter is my own blunders - and if I have a talent, it's for exaggerating these to enormous proportion and then laughing myself silly. And I don't need an audience, either! (Although an audience is always nice when you've got a good tall tale to tell.)
I'm with you, Zhoen.
We need, need, need to laugh. It's our duty to humanity and ourselves to do it often.
I laugh more as an older adult than I did as a younger one. And certainly much more than I did as a child .... I'm with you. It gets easier to laugh as the years go by.
I think we see the child we were as a totally separate person. Thinking about myself as a wee one in certain circumstances can make me howl - not from self-pity, but from quite objective compassion. The pain of accepting a step family for example.
Like you I try to be the comic turn to keep life light around me. I laugh more now, but my childhood was generally OK.
I appreciate your sense of freedom as an adult to do as you please. My take on that was "When I grow up I'll never, never, ever go to bed early", and I don't.
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