Be Childlike, Not Childish

Children are creativity engines. The difference between seeing a cloud as Obama riding a dinosaur or as a group of water particles floating in the firmament is the difference in mindset of a child and a hardened adult. Or, in the case of some adults, white fluffy things in the sky. But they certainly aren’t robot squirrels. No. Never, that’s just silly. Thinking about silly things isn’t productive.

Being childlike is seeing through a lens. We choose to see things as possibilities rather than reality. This view of possibilities may be described as childlike. This trashcan is a dog that swallowed too much garbage and is vomiting. Or it’s an overfilled plastic waste containment device that some human is too lazy to take out. It may seem pointless to some to see it as an upchucking dog, but it sure is a heck of a lot more fun than seeing it as a smelly dump.

Because my primary view of the world is one of principle, concept, essence, and abstraction, it may be unfair to define this lens as so extreme. For those of you that have a closer tie to reality, a more likely example would be thinking of a toy car as a real car, pretending it makes sounds (such as vroom) when it drives down the racetrack (the couch arm).

Childishness is a behavior. We act out when we don’t get our way. We are rude to people or scream and throw fits when we don’t get a raise. We aren’t trained how to act in a public setting. (Every culture has its own unspoken rules, but most don't take kindly to those of us who pretend we are in a spaceship during a carpool.)

If these definitions are generally true, you can be childlike in a public setting your whole life and still be seen as normal. However, acting on what you are seeing through your childlike lens at inappropriate times is childish. For example, yelling at inanimate objects in public, or jaywalking in a busy intersection pretending you’re Frogger, is a bit childish (but don't worry, the cops will help you feel like an adult when they toss you in the clink and fine you...)

The difference between knowing when and how to be childlike is one difference between being an adult and being childish. I believe we shouldn’t take life too seriously. Leave the immature behavior in your childhood, but take your imagination into your adulthood and have some fun darnit. Now I’m going to go sleep on my giant marshmallow that the genies gave me for saving their prized rat from certain doom.

(image not mine)