Monday, February 13, 2006
No Sledding, No Snowsuit
This is one of the sweetest things I've heard in a while:
"We're hoping for 365 days off from school," 9-year-old Reagan Manz told The Associated Press. "We could go sledding the whole time and not get bored."
When I was younger and it had snowed overnight, the first thing my brother and I would do upon waking up was pull on our snowsuits and run outside. Yesterday, as I stayed inside cleaning out a closet, staring hopefully at the pregnant cat, and doing four loads of laundry, I thought about how much has changed. When you're a kid and you wake up and there's snow on the ground, you're going out. There are no questions about that. There are forts to build and defend, and hills to go cascading down with your friends (or Mom, if the hill is really steep).
I wanted to go out and play yesterday, to wrestle with Mike in the snow, or at least to walk around. Even though I still think snow is beautiful, as an adult, it's more of a pain than a joy. Cleaning off the car or being confined to the house when there are things that need to be done. I wonder how many people have children just so they can relive the awe and excitement of things like snowfall, summer, Halloween and Christmas.
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1 comment:
Is there any other reason?
I remember reading an Adam Gopnik essay about his analysis with "the last Freudian" in NY. Except that this Freudian wouldn't shut up: made dinner reservations for Gopnik during sessions, advised him where to vacation etc. But when Gopnik and his wife were in turmoil about whether or not to have a child, the analyst was strangely silent. Eventually, he offered that they should do it: kids say the most amusing things. At the time, Gopnik found this to be an insultingly inadequate response, but after having a child found it to be the most perfect reason to do such a thing.
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