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?
