The world is a looking glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray

Jun 21, 2009

What Dr. Seuss brought about

'You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know.
And you are the one who'll decide where you'll go.
Oh the places you'll go.'

-- Dr Seuss

Sometimes we are reminded of things that are often buried in some vague part of our memory by something that triggers that specific memory. The trigger could be anything, a smell, a song, a picture, an occurrence. Last week while I was looking for a quote to accompany one of my pictures I stumbled upon the books of Dr. Seuss and I was instantly a child again, eagerly awaiting the next book. When the book arrived I remembered the excitement and thrill of reading it, how it often made me laugh and how disappointed I was when I had finished it – I would have to wait for the next book to arrive.

Reliving this memory brought me to ask my sister-in-law Linda if she could find some of his books so I could read them again. And, being the wonderful person she is, she responded that she had found ten of his books that she would give to my son to take home for me. Linda, thank you so much!

I am curious as to how I will experience them at the age I am now. What I will discover about them looking with adult eyes.

This experience has also made me look into what had made me happy as a child, in a time when parents expected you to entertain yourself because they were working hard to make ends meet, when there were no computers and not much TV, when we made our own toys from things we found because there was no money to buy new toys, when we played outside all summer long.

Amazingly (or perhaps not so amazing) I found the things that gave me joy as a child still give me joy – discovering a new path in the woods, reading a new book, creating something beautiful, seeing people laugh. Perhaps I am not so far removed from that child as I thought :-).



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