A short blog for a change.
My six-year old is always asking me about magical things, and imaginary creatures. “Mama, does magic exist? Are there giants? Mermaids? Fairies?”and my answer has always been, “What do you think? If you believe they exist then they do,” or”I like to think they do.”
Sooner than necessary he won’t be believing in anything except for the mundane. His life will get bracketed, he’ll have normal expectations and he won’t be examining flowers carefully in case they’re fairies in disguise or asking me if hobgoblins turned the milk sour in the middle of the night. He won’t accept everything he sees in his favorite fantasy movies; he’ll find out that in our real world children don’t have much power. I’d like him to spin out the fantastic web for a few years longer, and feed his mind, feed his imagination without anyone telling him he’s being silly or unrealistic. Let me tell you, realism for the most part sucks. Permanent escapism isn’t a good thing either but he’s young and besides he has a healthy interest in the everyday things too; it’s just all mixed up with the absurd and the fantastic. Like football and fairies, tooth-brushing and trolls under the bed. He’s an inspiration to us all.
I’ll be off the internet for the next couple of weeks. See you in September!
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