I was reading today about someone who was remembering what she was like as a child--cheerful, bright, creative--and how she hopes to get back to being that child. She wants to be Like Herself again, as reflected in the above song.
A worthy goal! :-D We all feel that way sometimes (albeit this is someone who's had a very hard life and I tip my ten gallon hat to her.)
So today I want to post another of my favorite Joseph Campbell passages, for her. Because Campbell promises us that our Inner Toddler Goofball never goes away! Yay!
...the infantile unconscious. ...We carry it within ourselves forever. All the ogres and secret helpers of our nursery are there, all the magic of childhood. And more important, all the life-potentialities that we never managed to bring to adult realization, those other portions of ourself, are there; for such golden seeds do not die.
If only a portion of that lost totality could be dredged up into the light of day, we should experience a marvelous expansion of our powers, a vivid renewal of life. We should tower in stature. Moreover if we could dredge us something forgotten not only by our entire civilization, we should become indeed the boonbringer, the culture hero of the day--the personage of not only local but world historical moment.
In a word: the first work of the hero is to retreat from the world ...
Here's my inner child. She's got a book and a cat. Big surprise eh?
4 comments:
"Kids use their imaginations for play, most adults use it for worry."- Sean Stephenson
Well... at least we're still using it?
Thank you. That was beautiful. I love Joseph Campbell and haven't read him in a very long time.
I love the idea that "those golden seeds do not die."
Another thing one can use imagination for, whether one is a child or an adult, and that is to imagine bad things happening, generally with connections with both anxiety and PTSD. I'll work on getting my inner child to pay more attention to the play aspect, rather than the boogey man aspect. :)
You rock, darlin'.
Ahem yes, well, as Yoda might say--gotta tap into the light side of the Force. ;-)
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