Reclaiming the Joy of Childhood

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

First, I am not sure if the way I feel is genetics, the way I was raised, or me being neurodivergent.

My Mom still has that sense of chidlike joy and wonder. My Dad was most a grumpy misanthrope. But he was always learning new things He tool great joy in petting animals and listening to bizarre music.

Shortly after I moved into this neighborhood last year, I learned that there was a Bat Night in a nearny park. There were some very interesting displays. I was looking at a bat preserved in urethane and wondering just what species it was, when somebody announed through a mega phone “Story time is starting!”. I was very happy that night, and my response was to raise my arms and say “Yay! Storytime!” Then I remembered that I was surrounded by people in my new nieghborhood. Fortunately the only person who noticed felt my response was entirely appropriate.

I have said in various places and to various people “If I ever lose my childlike sense of wonder, I want you to shoot me.”

I am a diagnosed hoarder. I am working on it. I am also a collector in that many of the things I have legitimately rare and valuable. I have been going through tha huge stack of bins and boxes filling my bedroom in earnest lately. I keep finding really fantastic stuff I forgot I had, thought was lost, or thought the movers threw out. I have the pump and squeeky ball accessories for my robotic balloon dog. Soon, very soon I shall find the robotic balloon dog. For a long time, I had the painted and assmbled base and body for a Dracula model. I feared I had lost the head and hands forever. While opening boxes, I found the painted head and hands. I just need to find the painted, assembled but capeless body and I will have a new Dracula model.

I recently spen $70 to get a Real ID. I have gotten rid of a lot of books, but I need to buy at least two more bookshelves (I found a model by Furrino that should do the job and is only $40 a piece. I will likely need a friend to visit and help me assamble the one I already bought and had shipped). There are other necessary expenses. However-

They have made a Rom Spaceknight figure. It is only $25. I will probably buy one. I have wanted an Otamatone for many years. For a long time, they were rare and cost over a hundred dollars used. I have no idea what changed. You can now buy a decent model Otamatone new for about forty dollars. I will buy one.

Oh, and Dollar Tree is now selling a frisbee designed to blow bubbles as it flies through the air. I bought one. For $1.25 how can you go wrong?

22

I took graphic design for a few years with a wonderful teacher who was deeply curious about everything and inspired his students to do wonderfully creative work. When he gave us an assignment, he used to say, “Fill me with a sense of wonder.”

We were a couple of years apart in age and became close friends. Sadly, he died in 2018. I still miss him. Adults who have hung on to that sense of wonder are few and far between-- I guess that’s what this thread is really about. :thinking:

23

I have not done any for quite a few years now, but yes. Me too. The inquisitive part of my mind takes over from the “sensible adult” part, and it is a joy. And so intetesting to review once sober.

Psychedelics and dissociatives , though.

Choose your psychoactice chemical carefully!

* note: do not use dissociative chemicals (chloroform, PCP, Ketamine, et al) alone, do ensure someome is sober nearby.

24

Years ago, I had a room mate in a residential mental health facility who besides mental health issues was a recovering addict. In general, alcohol and drugs do not appeal to me. But, the warnings about LSD we were given throughout school made it sound fascinating. Once we knew eachother well enough to discuss such things, I asked him what and LSD trip was like. I said that it sounded fascinating and that I wondered what would happen if I dropped acid. After some thought he said
“You would go some place nobody had ever been before. Then, you would not come back.”

Those words, not anything they ever said to us in school, convinced me that I should stick to alcohol if I wanted to alter my mind.

25

I experience child-like joy fairly frequently - often on purpose and often because I have previously taken note of something that made me spontaneously happy, then later repeated it on purpose.

Like I discovered that big onions make me happy - you know the really huge Spanish onions that are like 8 inches in diameter - just holding one in my hands and looking at it, makes me giggle; when I see them on the market I rummage to find the biggest one and I buy it - last time I did this, the chap who took my payment said “wow, that’s a whopper!” and I replied “isn’t it magnificent?”, and walked home with a spring in my step just because huge onions.

Girthy carrots are the same in fact just saying or writing the words ‘girthy carrot’ can make me grin and laugh.

And there are loads of things like this - smooth rocks; the tiny details on the petals of a flower that you can’t see unless you get down close; wearing odd socks on purpose; a perfect sandwich, when you stop to notice that you’re eating a perfect sandwich; making monkey noises in an empty multistorey car park, etc.

I think people only tend to question “why is this happening to me?” when the thing happening is a bad thing, but if you ask yourself that question when it’s a good thing - like “why am I happy?”, you can sometimes discover that the root cause of your happiness is something actually quite simple, that you can choose to repeat again another time, rather than waiting to be happy by accident.

26

Yeah, this is true, to a certain extent. But I have never wanted to “come back”. It was an educational experience which taught me a lot about me and my mind.

And resiliance - bad trips are, as they say, “character building” (cough, bullshit!) in that you can learn how to deal with mental crisis.

I’ve had about 10 bad trips in my career. Managed to salvage them all, though some were tough.

Psychedelics are a big deal, they are not for “tourists”

27

Quoted, as they say, for truth. And beautifully written

28

I have children. I am divorced, but I get to see them. Daughter, age 9. Son, age 6. We went to the beach together on Sunday, splashed in the waves and made sandcastles. Pure joy. Crazy architecture by my son, sensible foundations by my daughter.

In those moments I was not “Dad” I was a playmate. I think we all can be childish… but to become child-like is much better.

29

Speaking of smooth stones, something that instantly induces child-like wonder for me is skipping stones in rivers or ponds. Finding a pile of just right flat stones on a bank with a flat expanse of water, getting the throw just right so the stone skips multiple times, bonus points for skipping over obstacles like lily pads or floating sticks is a brief slice of heaven for me.

Another childish indulgence for me is finding spots in an enclosed stair well where stomping on the steps causes resonant echoing booms. Parking garage staircases with steel treads are often the best for this.

30

Update-

I did some declutterng after dinner. I found the rest of my Dracula model! I painted the pieces years ago. All I need to do is finish assembling them.

I also found a small brass chest. The first time my niece saw it, she said “It looks like a treasure box.” I explained that yes, that’s what it was. The inside is lined with red imation velvet. I keep my LED rings and similar things inside.

31

Two things that keep me engaged with the world in a pleasant way are curiosity and laughter. I have a naturally inquisitive nature and interpret most things through the lens of humor - even things not typically seen as “humorous”. Absurdity of life kind of things.

32

For several years, I caught tadpoles in the creek on my farm and gifted them to the children of co-workers, with an instruction sheet on how to care for them. The kids loved watching them grow and change.

StG

33

I feel that I had an idyllic childhood. We lived in a middle class neighborhood that had plenty of kids to play with. When I think of my childhood, I think of summers. Endless days of playing outside. My friend and I would roam around in the woods and play in the creek (or crick as we call it). In the evenings my sisters, some of the neighborhood kids and I would play in our yard until dark which was around 9:30. We spent weekends at the cabin.

My best childhood friend has been living away from our area for many, many years - most of our adult lives. When she comes back for a visit, we always find ourselves doing the things that we loved as kids. We’ll go for walks in the woods. We’ll go down to the Lake Superior beaches and look for agates and other interesting rocks, we explore rock shops, antique stores and gift shops. And I still do those things on my own. It’s fun to introduce the grandkids to those things. I also love to sit outside on summer evenings, I’m not playing Captain May I or kickball, but the evening summer air is still as good as it was back then.

34

I guess “reverse seasonal affective disorder” is a real thing, and I probably have it. Just that it’s wrose this year for some reason, causing me secondary issues which are then looping back to make the whole thing worse. But considering it takes weeks for drugs or therapy to work, it’s not like I can do anything but wait it out at this point and know it will get better when the seasons stabiliize

I guess my thoughts are, as a childless due, similar to when I see people posting fond family moments on Facebook. I have to reming myself that only the “Greatest Hits of Parenting” get posted. The good report cards and the trips to the zoo, not the bay’s poopy diapers and picking up the Middle Shooler after her detention for mouthing off to her teacher.

Similarly kids have certain spontanious, unrestrained joy, but as others have pointed out and as I’ve thought of, in many ways it sucks to be a kid, where they don’t even have full rights to their own bodies. The girl skipping across the crosswalk when the sun came out was probably told she was going to church that day, maybe even told she had to wear a dress, as opposed to my decision to go to an estate sale rather than church and wear sweatpants. . My great-nieces whole reason for excitement was because she wouldn’t have been allowed to just go out and get her ears pierced like any adult would. Kids are told they’re going to be examined by the doctor without choice in the matter, are even potentially still subject to corporal punishment.

A lot of things to think about.