Perspective

It's funny, scary, and liberating how our perspectives change from child to adult.  Luke was talking about it other day, referring to Chuck E Cheese.  As a kid he thought it was such a massive place full of endless wonder and big talking animals.  When he went as an adult, he thought, "What happened?... I thought it was much bigger than this."

I remember going to our "Hustonville Heritage Days" as a wee one and feeling swallowed up in all the people and festivities.  I remember thinking the parade was the biggest attraction from there to Cincinnati.  I loved it.  I loved the funnel cakes, ribeye sandwiches, and ice cream.  I loved watching the cloggers perform.  As a teen and then adult, something changed.  Heritage Days didn't seem like a big deal anymore.  It seemed smaller.  And sure, it has changed.  It's not as big of an event anymore.  But that's not what it was.  My perspective had changed.  As an adult I looked at it with bigger eyes.

I think it's one reason we often long for childhood again.  We long to see the world again from a perspective that makes everything seem big and wonderful and new and vast.  We were innocent.  We were small.

It makes me think that twenty years from now, I will not see things the same as I do now.  Part of that feeling scares me a little.  It makes me wonder what I am seeing through rose-colored glasses right now that I won't later.  At the same time, I anticipate those changes with peace.  The older people I look up to have a wisdom and serenity about them that I'm always trying to grasp...  like they see things that I don't.  Perhaps my eyes will become "bigger" and bigger, and near the end, I'll see the whole world, and I'll know for sure, once and for all, what's really important.

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