“…and the white knight is talking backwards…” The Jefferson Airplane
I asked “can you point me toward Camelot? I’ve heard the round table might yet be restored.”
At first the man hesitated, then added “perhaps, if only in our dreams.”
I shuddered at his dismissive tone and chose instead to join my daughter on the carpet, wooden toys in hand. The need to remove Excaliber from the petrified attitudes that darken our days is feeling like an overwhelming task being yet again postponed, put off on the next generation, and by example, those that will follow them.
Dare not let our dismissiveness breed dismissiveness…
I’m learning a great deal these days about the importance of objects in psychological development. It made me recognize consciously something I knew in my gut: the value of developing a relationship with books before the age of reading.
Ben and I spent some time exploring the Beaverkill River in Roscoe, NY yesterday and did our best to capture the experience with our various digital tools.
Play is both easier and harder than we think, precisely because thinking has little to do with it.
The other day while I was with my daughter, she suddenly got pretty agitated with me. At eighteen months, the few words she has are not yet capable of expressing her frustration. Finally, through some charades like acting she made it clear that she wanted me to get out of the rocking chair where I was sitting and join her on the rug.
Symbolically, the message was the same. Come down to my level Dad. And the emotional tone of the moment shifted immediately once I hit the carpet.
What followed was “as if” she said: check out these blocks. Do you like the yellow one? Watch how they fall when I try to stack them. You try. Wow, that’s really high. Whoa…watch out…hahaha. It’s great to have you here Dad. Where have you been anyways?
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