Work brought me to the East Coast recently allowing me a brief visit with my cousins in Pennsylvania. Their seven-year-old son, Jack, graciously gave up his room for the night, providing me a place to stay.
There is just no other way to say it.
It was pretty cool.
I was surrounded by everything that makes being six totally awesome.
The walls were painted like baseball stitching, covered in parts by baseball cards, or posters of favorite Phillies players. An Optimus Prime helmet rested near its Ironman counterpart. The window ledge provided the setting for a collection of Star Wars Lego figures, a few of their spacecrafts lying just below. The dresser was a playing ground for a quickly transforming toy (the name escapes me as it emerged long after I was a kid). Nearby, a bin contained several stuffed animals. Another shelf proudly displayed various awarded baseballs from games. A collection of baseball caps hung from the wall, some from favorite teams, but most from little league versions.
Like I said, it was awesome.
When I first arrived at the house, Jack provided me a twenty-minute tour of his room, making sure I understood the significance of each and every single item. I learned the story about the game where he earned a certain ball, the newest Star Wars Lego toy and why he hasn’t quite finished building it yet, and which little league hat was his favorite. I saw how different toys worked and had the opportunity to compare last year’s Halloween mask with the frontrunner for this year.
In other words, Jack was proud. He surrounded himself with his favorite things and his favorite memories.
And it got me thinking…
Are we still doing this? Are we still allowing ourselves to put up those favorite things and favorite memories?
I definitely remember the day I threw away all my stuffed animals and the day I took down my Batman poster. I remember getting rid of action figures and replacing baseball trophies with better-designed bedside tables.
And I’m wondering, is this good?
Don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying that our rooms should remained locked in childhood versions, but I am wondering how our environment affects our mood. I’m surrounded by electronics in my house that perpetuate certain mass media ideals. I don’t regularly pretend, play, or create in my environment, but instead I consume. I don’t print up photographs from events, but I may share them on my facebook profile.
And I don’t know if all of this is the best.
I’ve read too many stories about students and their negative thoughts or status updates on facebook, and part of me wonders if our “rooms” could be a contributing factor.
If our walls have become completely blank…
If our trophy stands have been put away…
If our all our toys reside at the nearby Goodwill…
…does it perhaps become too easy to forget that we are pretty cool people and that we still have awesome things going on in life?
Maybe. Maybe not.
But I looked at the pride that Jack took in his room, and I knew I wanted to get a bit of that back in my own life.
Don’t worry, I’m not going on an action-figure shopping spree, but I may buy a few more picture frames in the coming weeks and bring some of these facebook photos off my virtual wall and put them up on some real ones.
If you’ve been slacking like me in this regard, maybe you should do the same.