I remember an interview with the famous Norwegian philosopher and mountaineer Arne Naess, where the journalist asks him Why did you start climbing?, whereupon Naess quickly responds Why did you stop? It perfectly sums up how wrong our views on childhood and freedom have become; we assume that during childhood we should grow cultivated and civilised and socialised - which are all very good things - but at the expense of the wildness and playfulness so inherent in us. Why let these things go? Why not keep it all, love it all, embrace it all? This is partly why I don't want my children to grow up in institutions (kindergartens/ schools), because the expectations to what or who you should become are so explicit there. You can be yourself, but only if you fit in and follow the rules. The magical autonomy of who we really are, our creative centre, I think it suffers a lot on its way through the institutions.
Anyway. These two monkeys. They roam the treetops now, without fear and with the lightest touch. I'll hear a voice from high up above, shouting Mammaaaaaaaaaa!, and I'll look up and see nothing, maybe just a ruffle in the leaves up there. And then, movement, and a messy head of hair will appear, almost at the top of the tall tree. And I have fought the urge to shout Come down!, because I know I shouldn't hold them back, and I have to trust them. I have to trust them to trust their bodies and their boundaries. Because I want them to do like that 90-year old philosopher did; never stop playing, never stop climbing.
