Childish Liberty

Yesterday, I picked up a package from the post office in town. It contained a supplement Lydia and I use, a fitting to get Lydia’s freeze dryer running, Trevor’s birthday gift, and what I assumed to be another fitting. When I got home, I promptly stashed Trevor’s birthday gift (a pail of Lego blocks) out of reach. Trevor opened the little box, which I assumed to be another fitting. Turns out, a battery charger and three batteries showed up that I had ordered and forgotten about. Trevor discovered part of his birthday gift early.

Trevor immediately recognized the batteries as his camera batteries. He’s been playing with a non functioning camera that Lydia used in bygone years. I figured that perhaps the camera was not working simply because the existing battery was dead.

I plugged in a battery and hit the power button. The camera came alive! The lens opens and closes properly. Even the pop out flash works!

Instead of make belief play at taking pictures or videos, Trevor now has a real camera and he knows how to operate the lens zoom and take real pictures. He’s learned how to play back pictures and even how to do delete pictures.

He spent at least an hour or two taking pictures. Everything from outside landscape pictures to interior pictures of a mustard bottle on the floor. What impressed me was his unbounded liberty in experimentation. With no pressure to get good quality pictures, he bounces from scene to scene snapping lots of pictures.

I’m thinking about all the times I’ve thought of experimenting with something new, but feel boxed in by expectations. These expectations may be my own or expectations from others. This ends up holding me back from getting going and enjoying the process when I am terrible at it. Instead of embracing the terrible early results and pushing through to eventual success, I sometimes never even give it a try.

Trevor has the liberty to play and experiment without fear or worry. I’ll try to learn to be like my little boy.

Here’s a couple of pictures from his second day of taking pictures:

Trevor’s piggybank

A picture of a puffin in one of Trevor’s picture books.

Picture of part of the book cover of “On the Banks of Plum Creek”

Here’s to a week of learning something new or experimenting again,

— Simon