The 5 year old has taken to asking :
"Are you playing Won-Oh-Won?"
"Is that Won-Oh-One?"
"I like Won-Oh-Won."
So, I had a young fan club watching with rapt attention, as I monotonously swept through the floors, repeatedly dancing around the Iron Golem. Soon enough, the 3 and 5 year old displayed their understanding of what was going on, in their own curious little ways:
"Oh! Vampire is going to put the robot in time out! Bye-bye, robot!"
"Flap, flap, flap!"
"Shovelman!"
"Arrrrr, matey!"
"Hahaha! He fell apart and made a big mess!That's silly!" (Iron Golem)
"He hit you! He's naughty!Bad robot!"
"no leper-cons!"
It's always refreshing to see the world, through new eyes. Long ago, I had a Sensai that told me to "always keep your beginner's mind". What he meant by that was " do not let your accumulated learning weaken your original hunger to learn all you can".short version: "Don't get jaded."
You know how it is. Remember your first day in Wizard City, when *everything* was new? All you knew was "how much you didn't know". And so, you learned. A lot. As much as you could.
Fast forward to present day. Do you still have that same "gotta learn it all" enthusiasm? Odds are, "no". That's not to say that you don't love the game, but it's a natural part of human nature, (often coined negatively as "Familiarity breeds contempt", or "resting on your laurels"). We get so used to a "thing", (in this case, W101), that sometimes we forget the magic that swept us up, in the first place.
Thanks to the don't-know-any-better wisdom of a 5 year old, and a 3 year old, I have been reminded to "keep my beginner's mind". Food for thought.
Be well!
1 comment:
I completely agree with the "seeing the world through much younger eyes." And same for thinking on new people just starting Wizard101. I try to remind myself what it was like for me at first. But then I always seem to be putting myself in other's shoes in so many situations...sometimes not such a good thing to be this empathetic.
But even outside of W101 I always get a smile and my heart lightens when I see kids just being kids and being curious...and the way that they usually seem to be ever cheery, and everything is so simple, and everything is so innocent to really young ones. It makes me miss those times when I was a kid doing the same things...like even just taking a blanket and laying out on the grass with the family dog and talking to the dog and believing that the dog understood and would keep my secrets(though I didn't have a dog, I had cats...but I am certain I talked to the cats...I had only witnessed this of a neighbor child a few days ago.) And laying out on that blanket you didn't think of the bugs that might crawl all over it when you got up to run around and then came back to it. Nothing really mattered except that you were having fun and you were with your best furry friend...you were "in your own little world," and the entire world didn't even enter into your thoughts, only that time and that place mattered.
Children are wonderful reminders of so many of these things...keeping an open mind, trusting, being fascinated with learning and new experiences...
Post a Comment