A few days ago, my son had his singing recital at his music school. It was the end-of-year summer recital, so there were a lot of kids performing. The music school has students of all ages, starting from 4 to adults. My son’s teacher, apart from him and a few older students, had a group of 5-year-old girls singing and performing to Hakuna Matata from Lion King. The little girls went all out and wore costumes of the Meerkat, the warthog and a lion cub. It was the cutest thing to watch, and I loved it. While the performance was going on, a lady standing beside me remarked, “I’m glad I’m not that girl!”. Well, you know what, I’m glad you’re not that girl either! That little girl there is creating a core memory, living her life and enjoying it as a child; why should that bother anyone in any way!
This situation reminded me of a popular Malayalam movie child actor (female) stating in an interview that small kids of this generation don’t really believe in unicorns and hug teddy bears all the time! Now I did hear that this was taken out of context and so am not quoting her. But just for the sake of discussion, let me just say what childhood have you lived if you never believed in unicorns? Our imagination in our childhood is the foundation of our ambitions growing up. My son is 13 and still believes that if I kiss his “boo-boo”, it will be fine and not hurt anymore. And I treasure that thought. I will hold on to it as long as I can until he outgrows it.
If as a child you simply don’t believe that all things in the world don’t need logic and that some things simply work by magic, then how are you ever going to trust in miracles in your life when you grow up?
I have read somewhere, “if you want your child to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.” Why is it said so? Because fairy tales help you believe that in the end, it’s all going to work out and if it’s not good yet, then it’s not the end after all! Fairy tales bring unicorns and teddy bears and princesses alive in your imagination and transport you to a magical land. This is what most of us do as grown-ups, when we mediate. We envision a magical land, our happy place, where our loved ones and we are smiling and living a pain free and problem free life. Now, how can you envision that if you haven’t believed in magic in your childhood?
So let kids be kids and let them paint their own masterpiece in this world. Please do not interfere and ruin it for them. Probably, a wise mandrill like Rafiki could save them from all their problems in adulthood. Being a grown up is anyway overrated, so let them just enjoy a magical childhood with unicorns, teddy bears et all. Let’s keep our cynicism aside and pave way to their imagination and fiction.
Afterall, what is life without a dash of pixie dust sprinkled on it!
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