Staying Young Inside

I spent the other day hanging out with my friends James and Laura, who had just got back from an extended stay in Thailand and who will be getting married later this summer. They are also artists and for several hours we sat around the floor drawing and playing drums and games and just generally being kids. At least like how Metachor and I were kids growing up together, which never seemed like all that normal of a childhood.

For a year I've lived in a collective house with a family raising two girls, aged 3 and 6. Being around them regularly has really reminded me just how amazing that young state is. Kids just apprehend the world so intensely, with a primal sense of wonder (and awe) that comes before any of the other filters we put on our experience. They are always learning and always playingand always creating. What a great place to be brought back to. The world has become so much more fun and magical since learning to be young again.

But it's not such a sustainable archetype, children are vulnerable and life can be hostile. When I left my friends house I felt like I had to throw back on all these other roles, social customs, and solid beliefs, all the masks that help me deal with the everday world. What a burden to feel the need for such psychic protection, like heavy coats in the summer. Why do we live in a culture that thinks growing up is actually a good idea? Or that it's possible to pretend to ourselves that we're not always kids at heart?