Sam Turner
extreme swing
Oh, this makes me happy. And, if truth be told, a wee bit sad. And then gratified and contented. Happy to see Manon and Elodie so giddy with joy. Look at those faces — merry, radiant, over the moon. Is there anything so wonderful as the face of a child completely exuberant in the moment? Carefree, spontaneous, buoyant in heart.
A wee bit sad because I know there’s absolutely no way I’d ever get that much fun and delight out of a swing. Oh, I’d enjoy it, to be sure. But something happens to us as we grow older. It’s not that we lose the capacity for this sort of unbound elation; it’s that we’ve lost the innocence necessary to experience that much pleasure from something so very very simple.
But gratified that I can remember that feeling. I can recognize it on the faces of Manon and Elodie. And content in the awareness that I’d get more pleasure and enjoyment out of watching Manon and Elodie in the swing than I’d get from the swing itself.
Getting older has gentle compensations.
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