Of Budding Reverie: Exploring the Wonder and Vulnerabilities of Childhood
“What was wonderful about childhood is that anything in it was a wonder. It was not merely a world full of miracles, it was a miraculous world.”
Today Dolly and I dig back into our deeper selves, reminiscing about the lost reverie that is childhood. We unearth a few memories, recalling those souls that made our long ago years so whimsical and special. We look at our cultural backgrounds that provided the roots for a Canadian and German youth. Also, we discuss the looming threats to childhood today, spanning from the education system, to technology and the everyday predators that lurk in bureaucracy. Did we have a good childhood? Did you?
“Childhood is like contemplating a beautiful region as one rides backwards, one really becomes aware of the beauty at that moment, that very instant, when it begins to vanish.”
Der Abendstern (The Evening Star) c. 1830 - Caspar David Friedrich, Goethe-Haus, Frankfurt-am-Main
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
‘My Heart Leaps Up’ - William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Snap the Whip, 1872 - Winslow Homer, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio