Friday, May 8, 2009

A Windmill Hat

I had a hat with a spinner on the top when I was a kid and thought grand as I ran around, too heavy for lift-off.  I also used to wear a cape and fashioned a sword to go along with the imperious image.

Adults ought to dress up in odd attire from time to time to help them to be mindful of the unstructured and creative fun that framed childhood.  Why not? Adulthood is too serious, too rigid, too ugsome.

Odd that often we need alcohol to 'loosen up' and lower that wall we customarily maintain around ourselves.  Why not do it without the booze?

Sometimes I put on an odd hat just for the hell of it to see how others react.  Not often enough, however, and it is usually when I am spending time with grandchildren.  I wore that pair of 4th of July spinners there in the photo- ran around the house and outside with them twirling wildly and for a brief moment, felt that tug of youth once again.

Author Joan Chittister in her book, The Gift of Years, says this about memories:

Most of all, memory and the way we deal with it is the only thing we have that makes us authentic teachers of the young.  It tells us what we did that now we miss doing, and it reminds us if what we didn't do that now we wish we had.  And such things live in memory forever."

Where's my spinner hat?

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