Childhood Lasts Forever
I suspect that childhood might simultaneously be both the shortest and the longest phase in our lives. Though it may only last about 18 years, while it is happening, it feels like a century - and it shapes everything in our lives yet to come.
Driving down winding country roads every day, whilst preferable to city commuting by a longshot, hath instilled in me a strong appreciation for road rage. It is by the sheer absence of folks at whom to rage that I am able to comprehend (through decades of parceled memories) why such rage exists. Also, people do idiotic things on quiet country roads when they think nobody is around. Like stopping dead in the middle of the road to look at their phone with their four-ways on just over a crest and a blind curve. Like recklessly passing a garbage truck on a 70km/hr two lane road - again, on a winding road, without knowing who's coming the other way. What's the worst that could happen?
I love cities. I love nature. I miss nature when I am in cities but I do not miss cities when I’m in nature. Towns and open rural areas are another situation altogether. I miss everything when I live in small towns. Don’t worry, though: I appreciate everything I have. I'm not a total dick.
As creatures who have given birth, are we ever not “post-partum?” As I look down at my feet, I notice that they appear smaller than they once did because everything else permanently increased in size. As I notice my patience has increased by 10 000% compared to myself a decade ago. As I notice how physically and metaphysically wearied I am all the time. How much energy it takes to be a performer; how infrequently I perform nowadays as a result. How much deep and unfettered love I feel each day. As the supposed early motherhood feelings sustain themselves for years… Am I ever not “post-partum?”