ON CRAYONS

Back in college, a friend and I were talking about our goals for the upcoming year. After discussing all of my videogame-related goals, he said "I want to keep the crayons in my life." Unsure what he meant, I asked for follow-up. This was his explanation:

"When you're a kid in kindergarten, you can turn in your "homework" really however you want. You can use crayons to practice your letters. As you get older, the restrictions become a little tighter - you have to use pencil or pen. Then just pen, although you could get one of those awesome four-color pens and write all of your papers in green ink. Towards middle school and high school, it's blue or black ink only, and then (later) in high school and college, you have to type everything, often getting your fonts assigned by professors. So as part of this year, I want to keep something in my life that makes me remember how much fun I used to have at school."

The next time I was at the store, I bought him a 64-pack of crayons (with sharpener!). From time to time, I think about trying to keep some sense of childlike wonder and appreciation in my life. I may not be limber (or light) enough to climb trees any more, so I try to make do with what I have.

More often than not, this comes from some form of media - yesterday I watched "E.T." for the first time ever, and then read the second two-thirds of the book Redwall, recommended on this blog a few weeks ago. It just helps me to remember that life isn't all about back pain and Roth IRA's. Good stuff, I tell you.

Please, do something to keep the crayons in your life.