When children read fantasy
Dec. 20th, 2008 09:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theoldwolfJust Stumbled across this marvelous article by Terry Pratchett, about whom I think much of late, after having learned that he is battling early-onset Alzheimer's - not fair, not fair!
http://www.concatenation.org/articles/pratchett.html
It made me realize I'm not wrong in proclaiming that "growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional."
As a result, and for no apparent reason, I reproduce here a piece that appears to be copyright 1997 by the English Teacher's Network, although no specific author is credited. I first saw this in 1999, and loved it.
________________________________________
I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult.
I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of a 5 year old again.
So......here's my checkbook and my car keys, my credit cards and the bills, my 401K statements, my stocks and bonds, my collections, my insurance premiums, my job, my house and the payments, my e-mail address, pager, cell phone, computer, and watch. I am officially resigning from adulthood. And if you want to discuss this with me further, you'll have to catch me.
'cause........
Tag! You're it!
http://www.concatenation.org/articles/pratchett.html
It made me realize I'm not wrong in proclaiming that "growing old is mandatory, growing up is optional."
As a result, and for no apparent reason, I reproduce here a piece that appears to be copyright 1997 by the English Teacher's Network, although no specific author is credited. I first saw this in 1999, and loved it.
________________________________________
I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult.
I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of a 5 year old again.
- I want to go to McDonald's and think that it is a four star restaurant.
- I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make ripples in a pond with rocks.
- I want to think M&M's are better than money because you can eat them.
- I want to lie under a big oak tree and watch the ants march up its trunk.
- I want to run a lemonade stand with my friends on a hot summer's day.
- I want to go fishing and care more about catching the minnows along the shore than the big bass in the lake.
- I want to think the world is fair.
- I want to return to a time when life was simple. When all I knew about were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes. When I didn't know what I know now. When all I knew was to be happy because I was blissfully unaware of all the things that should make me worried.
- I want to think that a quarter is worth more than a dollar bill because it is prettier and weighs more.
- I want to think that everyone is honest and good. I want to believe that anything is possible.
- I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life and be overly excited by the little things in life again.
- I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word, truth, dreams, the imagination, the Tooth Fairy, a kiss that makes a boo-boo go away, making angels in the snow, and that my dad and God are the strongest people in the world.
So......here's my checkbook and my car keys, my credit cards and the bills, my 401K statements, my stocks and bonds, my collections, my insurance premiums, my job, my house and the payments, my e-mail address, pager, cell phone, computer, and watch. I am officially resigning from adulthood. And if you want to discuss this with me further, you'll have to catch me.
'cause........
Tag! You're it!
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-21 02:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-20 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-20 09:25 pm (UTC)Pratchett is a man who clearly loves language and the things you can do with it - may God bless and watch over him.
And bad cess to the likes of those who would burn Harry Potter books ... and then imagine they hear them screaming in the flames. It is a wicked thing to destroy any book.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-21 02:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-21 12:47 am (UTC)I have trouble with this one. I don't think I was any happier as a kid. Too few privileges, too little power. I had high expectations for things, all right -- which made sharp learning curves then, not in ten years.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-21 02:27 am (UTC)If we could capture the best of childhood (Matt. 18:4) - Innocence, hopefulness, trust, courage, persistence, honesty, openness, joy, unflappability - everything that makes a child a joy to behold, then our world of adult responsibilities would be much more pleasant.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-21 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-21 02:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-21 03:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-21 04:10 am (UTC)