Thursday, January 20, 2022
You were once a child. The world was your playground. Just being with friends was more than enough. A fort of blankets and pillows was a castle, fortified with enchanting powers. An invented game could keep you busy for hours. Anything could be used as as a substitute for what wasn’t real. A ordinary stick was a magic wand. An old towel was a perfect cape with superpowers, ready to make you soar above the earth. A cardboard box was enough of a dwelling to satisfy your dream-house desires. Play money bought you whatever you wanted. It was all fun. It was games. That’s because you weren’t in charge.
No child pretends to be down and out, stressed, overworked. Kids pretend to be well-adjusted adults who enjoy working, being parents, and having adult responsibilities. They pretend that adulthood is enjoyable. That’s because it is. Making a big deal out of it all, trying to be in charge of the world, that’s what’s not fun.
Whatever is “missing” from your adult life – substitute with your imagination. Let that be enough, for now. Pretend it’s all there, and pretend it’s exactly like you want it to be. Reality will catch up to your dreams, but so too will it catch up to your nightmares. So get ahead of it. You don’t have that much control over it anyway. Go about your day, and pretend that it is as it should be. You used to make-believe all kinds of normal “adult” activities were fun. Why not make this a reality, now? It’s so much better than all of the drudgery of adulthood. Besides, you’re not actually in charge of the world, anyway. It’s just a game, so you might as well have a little fun playing “life.”