Sesame Street - 9/22/10

Re-watching an excellent episode of the sitcom Scrubs that referenced Sesame Street and the pangs of adulthood, I was reminded of something truly depressing.  Everyone grows up.  As children, we have so much innocence and vivacity.  Our passion for living is belied only by our insatiable curiosity.  We seek to know, to understand, and that which we cannot or will not compass, we gleefully ignore because everything is right with the world.  We have no true obligations, our fears and our responsibilities are relegated to the trifle concerns of childhood:  staying in our parents' good graces, going to school, and doing our homework and our chores.  But for the most part, the evenings our OURS to enjoy, and the weekends....well, they're positively over-flowing with possibility!

We have a freedom, an unparalleled luxury to create, to explore, to spend our free time engaged in fantasy or adventure!  We build forts and tree-houses, make up interesting little games with our siblings and neighbors, concoct elaborate schemes to sneak out of our houses when we should be studying, to brave the untamed wilderness and venture out further than we're allowed.  We make believe.  And we're so wholly present, so wrapped up in the moment that everything we do becomes impossibly interesting.  We imbue life into the inert, creating significance out of irrelevance by our pure unmitigated energy.  We are like Gods, and we play host to innumerable worlds by the sheer power of our imagination.

I believe that, with adulthood, we truly lose a piece of our soul...or at least, we misplace it within our being.  We are so overwhelmed by the duties and obligations of taking care of ourselves and others that we forget how enjoyable and exciting life can be.  We are all seeking more; more time...more money, more power...but why?  Do we not merely desire these things in order to have the luxury that we once did as children?  To go out and see, and explore, and PLAY?  If we were all billionaires tomorrow, would we still spend all our time working instead of with our family and friends?  Would we slave away in our cubicles, offices, or workplaces instead of traveling and enjoying the beauty of this big beautiful world?  I believe the answer to that is self-obvious, and that creating and experiencing is our true inheritance from the Source.  We are meant to play, to have fun, to make up new thoughts and new fantasies, to bring the Universe to life through our energy and our innocence, to learn....and learn in an enjoyable and safe atmosphere.  But we have forgotten this.  We've forgotten how simple everything is and in doing so we've created complicated dramas, huge fabrications, and mistaken beliefs about what LIFE is and who WE are. 

We're lost in a sea of troubles, self-doubt, and fear....but deep down we're still those eager little children, chomping at the bit to break free from the shackles of adulthood and reacquaint ourselves with our true nature.  Somehow we've lost our way, but it's never too late to get it back.  We need only remember; to remind ourselves of who we are and what we want, so that we can get back to the way things were.  To find our way back....to Sesame Street.