by everending

Created on: January 10, 2009

Humans as a race are often too quick to get absorbed in the so-called necessities of life. Money and success, marriage and fame. We are so consumed planning for a future that we forget to live in the present. Of course we can't simply avoid stress. We need money and we need careers, and while marriages may have their downfalls, we are far more happy in the long run if we have a partner and a stable home. But these long-term goals should never be pursued at the sacrifice of short-term pleasures. Sometimes a drink at the bar with an old friend is worth missing dinner at home, and sometimes a spontaneous camping trip is worth taking a few sick days even in the midst of a project.

Stress is a by-product of living, but life should never be a by-product of stress. And sometimes, the only way to survive adult stress is to fight it with childish innocence and serenity. Sometimes, the only way to survive period is to remember where we came from, and to be willing to return there and learn again.

Our inner children are short-sighted. They seek momentary gratification. They operate on what Freud would call the pleasure principle. But we can't remain children forever; we never would succeed in any broad sense of the term because we would be stunted both physically and intellectually. But we can relapse freely into the naivety of childhood without feeling too guilty. We can throw tantrums, punch pillows, scream from the rooftops; sometimes the emotional outbursts of our inner children are worth more than any one hundred dollars an hour shrink. Development and maturity are milestones to be proud of, but there is also a kind of pride in knowing when it's okay to be immature again, when it's okay to forget the mistakes we've made and the lessons we've learned.

Stress can be a source of anger, but it can also be a source of grief. And like children, sometimes our words really can't convey the emotions we're experiencing. As adults, we often try to fit our thoughts into the pre-packaged boxes society deems appropriate. We can't break down, we can only clean up. However, art has always been one of our greatest therapies; it has always allowed us to express what hides just beyond the grasp of language. We can write stream of consciousness pieces, rip pictures from magazines and paste them into a collage, dip our hands in paint and draw with our fingers. Children don't conform; they don't fit nicely into pre-packaged boxes. Our inner children are rarely appropriate, and what's why we need them so much. Sometimes we need to let go to find ourselves, and there's no regret in that.

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