MOVED/ THE MESSAGES WE HEAR

MOVED
Well, we’ve done it once again. We have moved home and recording studio and are still in the process of rummaging through brown boxes to find simple things like finger nail clippers when you really need them. I’ll write more on the house and studio when I am settled and have some pics.

THE MESSAGES WE HEAR

I went on a walk this morning. As I passed an elementary school, I saw the crossing guard holding a STOP sign to stop traffic for kids crossing the street. I smiled when I remembered the stout and gentle man with gray hair who used to be the crossing guard when I was a kid. Wearing his orange reflector vest and matching hat, he was there EVERY day on my long walk back. It was probably a mile, but felt like ten in my little Velcro shoes. I wish I remembered the guys name still (I’ll bet my mom still remembers). He became so familiar after 6 years of me walking to school that I was sad someone else took his place.

My wife and I were talking about Sesame Street last night. We were reminiscing about the different characters and whom we liked or disliked the most: Kermet the frog, Oscar the grouch, Big Bird, Slimy (the worm), and who the heck knows the name of those purple alien looking furry guys who honked when they hit their noses and ears.

Looking back, we were thinking about the kind of messages we were used to hearing from shows like Sesame Street. Messages like “be yourself, no matter how big or small you are.” Or messages that say “it’s the small and simple things in life that matter.” The messages moving into a new generation changed. Everything became an expectation of the big and grand…rock star status. “Change the world by doing something incredible, becoming something mega-big, super-star, super-power.”

Maybe I’m just getting old, but I miss the messages that left me able to be who I really was…a kid. I still feel like a kid, but I constantly feel like I’m short of the “big and grand.” It is a tiring world-view to be a part of.

I miss being a kid. I miss being enough only with my small and simple ways. I miss the crossing guard and his orange reflector vest. I think life must be about learning how to come full circle. The older and more mature I get, the more I realize my mission is to live out adult-hood with the spirit of my child-hood.