e.e. cummings
"Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit."
It's so easy to say, but what does it mean to "believe in ourselves," anyway? I believe I exist. I believe I mean well...but...
I am reminded of how other people will mock you if you show wonder or delight. There's a vulnerability in spontaneous reactions, and we learn to stifle the appearance of simple joy. And since feeling something is directly and reciprocally connected to showing something, we purposefully stifle our ability to feel simple joy, and all those other wonderful things, because they are "child-like." They show a strange and unfair social weakness others cannot seem to resist. To coo over something new and wonderful is the same as crying at a movie -- others are "allowed" somehow to put you down for it.
So it that all there is (to a fire)? "Believe in ourselves" means "not care if others make fun of us"? If so, I'm not sure I'm going to get there anytime soon.
posted by Julia at 9:17 AM
4 Comments:
being a mom is by far the hardest challenge I have ever had, but one of the great aspects is getting to relive all that childlike wonder through the eyes of your own children, and you really don't give a damn what anybody thinks. It's very freeing. It has bled over to the other times in my life when none of my children are present. And I still don't give a damn. I know you must have felt some of that when your nieces were around. (I saw tape - sorry, come kick my butt).
I swear, someone with a digital video camera is going to have to be killed.
My only regret is that I did not make a copy for myself....or did I?
ps when other people criticize me, even strangers, it still hurts. But I still at least do what I want anyway.
Post a Comment
<< Home