You Have My Permission to be Childlike

Well, it's not like you need it.

And let's look at the word I used. I said "childlike" and not "childish."

So let's look at the definition I'm using.

Childlike: (of an adult) having good qualities associated with a child.

For this post, I'm looking at "childish" of being "bad qualities" as opposed to just acting appropriate for a child. Both are true toward the definition.

I'm also look at a few terms that I see as defining the "good qualities" to make up Childlike. The main ones I see are teachable, humble, and grateful. Now, there are children that don't always exhibit these (take mine for example.)

My children are also helpful. Oh sometimes they're not (like when it's time to clean their rooms.) But when I need to make cookies in the kitchen or my wife needs to clean the bathroom, they are always wanting to help. It's not a chore, it's fun. Yeah, I agree that making cookies or cupcakes can be fun. When I'm trying to decorate a cake like these, then it's not as good.

Sometimes I think I'm a big child. Oh, on occasion it's because "wow, did I really behave that selfishly?" But sometimes, it's "oh, I wish I could just ignore the world and play with my old Power Rangers or WWF/WWE Wrestlers."

For the record, through old boxes I've gone through in the last couple years, I actually have both a set of my old Power Rangers and WWE Wrestlers in my home now. My son loves playing with my original series Rangers while my youngest actually likes hitting my wrestlers together.

I've always been somewhat of a hoarder/collector. And when these two sets of toys came back into my life over the past two years, there are pieces missing to the collections I've always wanted to acquire. For the Power Rangers, it was from a McDonald's set of 6 for their first movie. As you can see, I'm missing 2 of them.







For the Wrestlers, I received the original 12 for my birthday in 1990. (On the 24th of this month, that'd be 23 years ago.) Over the next few years, I got a bunch more and out of those 12, I am now sadly missing 5. But I still want them. And one day, eBay will be my friend in purchasing them.

Sharing this 'want for toys' isn't to show you how childish I can be. It's more to express a piece of me that I know is childlike and that I love. See, for me, these aren't just toys. They're memories. They're a reminder of who I once was.

For me, being childlike is something no one should lose. Drop the bratty child bit, that's okay. But that wonder and awe. That love of simple things. That enjoyment in learning. That permission to build a world out of toys. That permission to even live in that world for some time.

So you have my permission for being childlike.

Alien abductions are involuntary, but probings are scheduled.