Be a Kid Again
When was the last time you played jacks or marbles? You remember jacks, the little rubber ball with 10 spiky metal pieces you toss on the floor then pick up as the ball bounces. Or made a snow fort, Guys? My guess is going to be at least 20 years ago for most of you or longer.
As I sat down to write today a small Madame Alexander doll, known to little girls in the ’50’s as a Ginny Doll, caught my attention. I keep her on the window ledge with some miscellaneous family pictures and other artifacts from my past lives. She was wearing the a dress I put her in years ago, her hair a little mussed but still wearing the same sweet smile I remember from my childhood. I took her from the ledge, dusted her off, remembering all the afternoons spent with my girlfriends dressing our dolls, talking to them, talking for them. So many hours and hours of serious fun. I decided after critically surveying her, moving her tiny arms and legs, and finger combing her hair that she needed a hair ribbon. Its now thirty minutes later but the blue ribbon in her hair looks smashing and rather than feeling silly spending (some would say” wasting”) that much time playing with a doll I feel better than I’ve felt all day. I feel relaxed. It brought back memories of good friends and good times, friends I’m now determined to reconnect with, at least find out where they are and how life is treating them.
Marie Montessori says that child’s play is really their work – work at which they are learning things they will need to know for the grown up world. We just knew how to make “work” fun when we were kids. Did my girlfriend grow up and have babies to dress and cuddle, whose little arms wouldn’t go in the arm holes right (dolls are really hard to dress, ok?) but they patiently worked through it soothing the crying baby by whispering to it as she did her dolls a long time ago? All my guy friends from that era today know how to build things,take things apart, fix them and hopefully put them back together, maybe not perfectly but they use the skills they learned in their child’s play. Show me a guy who wouldn’t love to take the car out and run it on the highway like it was on a Hot Wheels track.
Where am I going with this? I want you to go play – for at least thirty minutes either today or tomorrow. There is plenty of snow outside. Bundle up (my Mother’s term for putting on warm clothing) and go outside and make a snow man, a snow angel, or a snow fort. Throw snowballs at your kids (or spouse) standing inside looking out the window at you. Go to the store and buy some jacks, marbles, Silly Putty, or a Slinky – yes, they still make those things. Take them home and -if you really must – find a child and show them how to play with real toys and a little imagination. If there are no children around find a grown up friend and share. No one to play with? Don’t worry. Plop down on the floor and start to play. Be a kid again and see how good it feels. Don’t worry about how you are going to get back up….. trust me. As a kid it won’t be a problem.