Better Things To Do
"If we loved children, we would have a few. If we had them, we would
want them as children, and would love the wonder with which they behold
the world, and would hope that some of it might open our own eyes a
little. We would love their games, and would want to play them once in a
while, stirring in ourselves those memories of play that no one
regrets, and that are almost the only things an old man can look back on
with complete satisfaction. We would want our children tagging along
after us, or if not, then only because we would understand that they had
better things to do."
Anthony Esolen, Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, xii.
I just encountered the quote above while trying to create this year's NYS IHIPs. It's rare that I cry, but today, still touched by the sadness of recent events and overwhelmed by all I Must Do, as well as those innumerable things I think I must do, feeling flubbish and utterly inadequate to the tasks at hand, unready for the new school year looming on the near horizon, and, above all, unworthy of the beautiful weight of rearing these little souls, I had a brief cry in the bathroom.
Thank you, Mister Esolen, for giving a sane word in a sea of frenetic voices.
(I guess at least one of the girls is eager for formal hlearning to begin...)
4 comments :
I love the quote & I love this post! I hope you are keeping well & loving on your little Aidan! My children also enjoy spending time up trees ~ so high sometimes that it is better if I do not look!
Have a lovely day
Blessings
Renata:)
Good words.
yes.
Thank you.
That book is en route via the interlibrary system this very moment. A read I've been wanted to get my hands on for a while now- and that quote just wets my whistle.
Three cheers for brief cries in the bathroom and three cheers for a Mama who recognizes the value (and weight) of her worth and task. So many Mama's don't.
Psst. I love the lights! Glad they made their way to the magic tree.
AND I've given credit where credit is due for those lights. :) (I have yet to punch the tin can lanterns, but they're still on that same list from three years ago!)
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