Just Be A Kid

   Most kids love playing in the rain; jumping in puddles, running around in the wet, it's something you don't get to do a lot (unless it rains pretty regularly where you live and it's not spring).

On the other end of the teeter totter though, a lot of adults don't like being out in the rain without an umbrella or at least a hat.

It's interesting, when it's raining and you have an umbrella or a hat or whatever, you usually aren't looking up that much. You know, it's damp, cool, you want to make sure you don't slip or step in a puddle.

But when you're being a kid and just enjoying the rain and being soaked, you don't care. You're looking for those puddles, you're already wet so why not?

It's a little fascinating really, the older we get the more lose the desire to do the things we did as a kid. And yeah, I know, part of that is some stuff we all did as kids we'd never want to do as an adult because it's way too embarrassing or whatever. 

For example, play acting getting married, splashing around in the bathtub, imagining that fake light saber you're holding are real and you're protecting you and your friends from the invading enemy. 

Yep, some of those things we did when we were younger are things we don't necessarily want to do when we get older. 

But maybe we should keep doing some kid-like things...

Okay, so look at the image below and tell me what you see. I don't care what it is, just say it. Just guess and I'll tell you what the answer is a little later.

Now, I'll tell you where I'm going with this.

There's a tv show called Brain Games which is super cool because it tells you all about different things that go on in your brain. There was one episode that introduced these drawings called droodles (well, they didn't created them but they talked about them). And the interesting things about this doodle drawings, is that there's not really a specific image that the artist had in mind.

That means you look at it and think about the different things it could be.

So, yeah, there's not really an answer to what the above picture is. The answer really just depends on you. (Personally when I look at it I see the Titanic about to hit that really pointy iceberg.)

But now here's the really interesting thing, according to this little picture, adults are less creative than kids.

Why do I say that?

First, how long did you look at that picture? I'm going to guess not very long. I'm just going to take a step in the dark and guess that you didn't study the picture or anything. (If you did, that's okay.)

The people at Brain Games took a few droodles to a public area and asked some volunteers what they thought the picture could be. Adults couldn't really come up with a lot of answers.

Kids though, they came up with more ideas and they were pretty clever too.

Go back to the droodle and think like kid. What do you see?

Chances are, you picked out something different than you did before. If not, maybe that means you're already thinking like kid…maybe, I don't know.

So, pretty interesting, huh?

Maybe next time it's raining you should look up and let the rain hit your face. That doesn't mean you have to get soaked but take a moment and enjoy the water.

Maybe next time you run into a problem, you should just take time to be a kid, take it simple. That's one of the things with the droodles; kids are better at coming up with more abstract answers because their brains don't really have limits. Think outside the box a little.

You know, kids are pretty amazing. Adults are too. But what strikes me is that kids always seem to be happy. And when they know something, especially younger kids, whether it's actually true or not, they have that I-know-I'm-right confidence. And to them, the world is a big wonderful place where anything can happen, good conquers evil and love and happiness are the true treasures. And those things are truths.

But why do we, as we age, grow out of that? I think that as we get older, we start to notice everything else going on in the world and the bad happening. And we focus on that, I mean, just watch the news, it's pretty depressing. I think it's a good thing to be aware of what's going on but don't lose that spark of hope and wonder.

In 2015 Disney came out with a movie called Tomorrowland that was, basically, all about thinking outside the box and making a difference. And that's important. The movie touched on how there are so many bad things going on and what are we doing? (It was a really good movie, though there was a pretty good dosage of language.)

So, there are times to be an adult and there are times to be a kid. Don't mix the two up and don't let one override the other. Let loose and be a kid.