It’s funny. At fifty, I’ve become that teenager I wanted to be when I was eight. I don’t have the aluminum boat, nor the lil green motor powering me to freedom. At the same time, the things I loved as a child are the things I love now.
The more I feel at ease to be myself, they more I enjoy and appreciate the things I loved back then.
I loved my family. When I was eight, it was all family, all the time. Family most of the time somehow meant getting into the woods. Crossing swamps and streams and pulling fish out of brooks where all family things.
It didn’t matter whether with friends or alone, riding bikes and building stuff were my real passions. My first experiences of the joy of freedom came when I first rode my bike without training wheels. I did it myself? That phrase changed from a question to a statement to a joyous battle cry within minutes.
One minute I was mortal, the next, in the saddle of the gods, I could soar through time and space and universes and still make it home on time to watch MASH. I was so excited by that first ride, it so overfilled me with pleasure that I can feel the memory to this very day.
When you were six, how did you surprise yourself?
What were huge victories?
What is something that you did by yourself where your parents tried or intended to help you and you had the issue / sill figured out and complete before they could intervene?
And the lil’ green motor?
Well.
Let me tell you what happened with me and the lil green motor…
Tomorrow.
Maybe.
I just realised the dude in the picture is wearing a cape. Brains are weird.
When I was 6? That’s waaaay back. I think I had a dog, living in the woods, yeah got started on a bike I guess but I don’t recall training wheels… could be vanity. Both my kids skipped training wheels but they had balance prep with Laufräder. Me boy cycled 3000km before he was 6, two years of commuting to his kita 3,5km Away hehe. It adds up!
I feel it tho, back in my bike, tho it hit me at 32, suddenly a bike was cheap transport… now it’s like, hey let’s get off the train 20km early and bike the rest of the way! No? Ok 35km! Ha!