“Full Metal Lotus” said:
“This may be a little off topic, but back when I was in my 30’s, my 4 yr old daughter made an observation that has stuck with me to this day… Grown ups are just like kids… its just that they are used to it.’”
That is just great! I had to start a thread just to highlight the brilliance.
Now I know why being a grown-up isn’t as much fun as being a kid. It is never as much fun when you are used to it. 
That is, indeed, very profound. I am in my early 30s and I’m trying to figure out why life “feels” so different from earlier stages. That may be a big part of it. The majority of life has become mundane. As a kid, finding a feather, for example, was amazing and thought-provoking.
I loved reading that in the other thread. That was one very astute little girl, and it’s a profound truism for one so young.
Life definitely loses its sheen the older you get. Nothing is as interesting as when it’s new and exciting, and as you get older, fewer and fewer things fit that bill. The more you’ve seen and done, the less there is to impress or fascinate you.
I think this has a lot to do with why time seems to speed up the older you get. When you’re young you’re exploring everything, learning about everything; the most mundane things can command your full attention because you’re seeing something wonderful that you’ve never seen before, or learning something about something you have that you never knew before. Once you’re older, all of that stuff falls beneath your notice – as do most mundane things during your daily grind. There’s no longer much to look at or observe that commands your attention quite like when you were young, so it all just passes you by unnoticed.
I try and find things that fascinate me, just to try and keep some of the wonder alive. Various aspects of science, astronomy and cosmology have all become fascinating subjects to me lately, because they’re the only things that have really managed to evoke that “wow, get a load of that!” response from me that I had when I was a child. Plus, they’re such big subjects that I could probably learn about them 'til the day I die and never want for something interesting to learn.
Ah yes, the gift of wonder. Most adults have totally lost it.
I saw this thread title and wondered if it would be about that particular observation. Made me think of the rabbit metaphor in Sophie’s World when I read it in the other thread. Wise words indeed. 
I was in a class for work - project management. Lots of international students. At one point by Thursday I realized that, on Tuesday, I had advocated a directional choice that left us in a tougher spot. I was really frustrated - my choice had been reasonable - after all, I got the team to go with me - but it was not surprising that we ended up where we were.
So I was stomping around our team room, when one of my Italian teammates, in gorgeously-stilted English, complete with dramatic hand gestures, said: “Oh, <WordMan> - do not hate your younger self!”
I have never forgotten it.
Another mentor of mine once told me to “quit trying to become what I already am” which has also always stuck with me…
My daughter told me that there’s this girl in her class at middle school that is the voice of doom whenever there is conflict between the kids there. DD and her friend had a mild disagreement, and Voice of Doom said something to the effect of, “Well, that’s the last straw, your friendship is breaking up now.”
I was blown away by what my girl told her friend: “Don’t listen to her. With us, there are no straws–we’ll be friends forever!”
All I could think was, “Wow–if we all had that attitude, how much our relationships would benefit and how much more enduring they’d be!”
Most. It’s not that hard to get it back.
Unless you have really uncomfortable shoes, of course.
Sometimes I think that I’ve amassed so many interests and hobbies that it all just becomes maintenance trying to keep up with things and I haven’t the energy to be astounded. Then, of course, all it takes is a few days off in a different place and life becomes fascinating again and I’m willing to take on new stuff.
All hail the three day weekend!
(Which I will only be working for some of, hopefully)
That’s one of my favorite things about being a father – seeing things for the first time again through her eyes.
We were visiting my brother over the weekend, when it started pouring rain. It stormed for about an hour before clearing up. When we went to leave, I realized we’d have to negotiate a hell of a lot of huge puddles in order to make it to the car. My daughter was about to start jumping in them when I told her to “make sure to stay out of the puddles!”.
That’s when a few facts hit me…1) She was wearing flip-flops, not nice shoes with socks. 2) She was also wearing shorts. And most importantly, 3) Jumping in puddles is a hell of a lot of fun.
“Cancel that, Shayla…the new goal is to make sure you jump in every puddle between here and the car”. The look on her face was well, well worth a little bit of puddle-drippings on the floor mats.
One of my favorite teachers used to say that’s what Jesus meant when he said (not searching for a quote) “you must be like a child to enter Heaven,” that it’s about realizing how wonderful and astonishing and fun and great the world is.
When he was a missionary in China, the people there called him “Big Nose,” as that beak of his was large even by Spanish standards. But his heart was even bigger and, AFAI can tell, he never stopped having a little kid’s eyes
That’s a very Taoist attitude as well.
One of my favorite things to do when it rains is to take off my shoes and walk through puddles. And then watch my wet footprints disappear when I moved to dryer ground. (Yes, I know the oil and other stuff is probably going to kill me someday. Who cares?)
When I was a camp counselor, it was always a big shock to come home and deal with adults, because it’d hit me that they were acting JUST LIKE my kids. And I usually counselled third through sixth graders.
My parents took my niece and nephews (13, 12, and 11) to see Wall-E yesterday (although my dad said “I don’t want to see a kid’s movie”, ha!) and all the way home he did the robot voice for the kids. My nephew said “Grandpa’s really just a kid in old people clothes.”
It’s really weird that my dad is somebody else’s Grandpa, though, with all Grandpa-related traits.