Lessons in SELF...... from preschoolers.

I watched my friend, Rosa's kids today. Three of them.... all boys- 5 yrs, 3 yrs, and 6 months. I hadn't been over in a while and so I had to be re-introduced to the spaceships and each Wii game and see the new ones and look at the new leggos that couldn't be opened until "I have a good week at school," and see the new book from the book fair and....... tired yet?
Once the eldest was convinced I was properly impressed with all of his toys, he set everything down and said, "yeah, but let's go outside and play." So out we went. Preschoolers have a very clear image in their mind of what they are "good at" and what they "will be better at when they are bigger" and the cool thing is, they are ok with it. It doesn't define them or stop them, it's just a reality. "Yeah, I can't do that very good, but when I am bigger I will be the best at it." Somewhere between 5 and 28, we lose that, and in it's place creeps the soft whisper, or the roaring yell, of self-doubt. Somewhere in there, life is defined by some arbitrary definition of success and failure. I'm not sure what does it, what suddenly makes us afraid to be decisive, afraid to say what we are good at, afraid to admit what we struggle with, afraid to just be truthful, and afraid to be plain silly. What I do know is that a day with a preschooler, or three, will make you wonder why you live life being afraid of being true to your SELF.
I didn't get the answer to that question today. Stephen was busy showing me how fast he could run and Peter couldn't be bothered with such silly questions while he kept track of the score of our baseball game- the Caterpillars vs the Owls. I'm quite sure they didn't care about such thoughts.

The Caterpillars won today-- 6 to 5. The Owls didn't mind too much. It was just another game in a long string of them, none of which will really change the way the world turns. And besides, getting a red popsicle was much, much more important.