"Your kid is going to be really disappointed", a friend told me the day before my younger one was being taken to the zoo with the rest of his class. "When Druv went last year, the animals were all asleep, and all he saw were snakes. He is still upset that he didn’t get to see the lions and tigers.”
“Not much anyone can do about it, is there”, I shrugged. But I did make sure I did not contribute to building up the excitement leading upto the visit.
“Did you have fun at the zoo?”, I asked when I picked him up in the evening. Emboldened by his excited nod, I gathered the courage to ask, “Did you see any animals at the zoo?”
“There were many snakes”, he said excitedly. “Many, many snakes!” Clearly he had not inherited his father’s fear of the reptiles.
“And did you see any other animals?”, I asked.
“Yes, there was a lion, and there was an elephant”, he said. “The lion and the elephant were playing hide and seek with the giraffe. The lion was hiding behind a stone, and the elephant was inside a box.”
“And did you see the giraffe?”
“The giraffe was finding the lion and the elephant behind the tree. And it was a very big tree. The giraffe was hidden by the tree. And I saw a hippopotamus. It was hiding in the water.”
Two weeks later, my son still talks excitedly about the visit to the zoo, and of all the animals he did not get to see, but which he knew were there. All he actually saw were the same snakes that the other children saw, but his imagination brought an entire Universe alive. What a wonderful thing is Imagination.
8 comments:
He'll go far and will NEVER be disappointed - because when you have imagination, anything is possible.
We adults could look through children's eyes sometimes I think we'd do much better. Sounds like the school needs to pick a different time to take the children to the zoo if the animals are always asleep.
Love his imagination. I bet he could write stories to entertain his classmates about the animals.
Such a wonderful world it is, that of the imagination. Such a wonderful child, to be blessed with its gift.
Oh, I want to SQUEEZE this kid. How absolutely wonderful!
He's got a great attitude as well!
Sounds to me like he might be a budding writer:)
I love imagination. And I envy the imagination of children. It's too bad adults tend to lose theirs as they grow. I hope I never lose mine.
ann
@ Fiona - imagination will get you far, wouldn't it. I hope he never loses his
@ Mason - it is always hot in Bombay - the only difference is whether it is hot, hotter or even hotter! And yes, the eyes of a child see so much more than our's do, don't they?
@ Dipali - I think so too. Touch wood.
@ Heather - go right ahead- he'd love it :-)
@ Diane - I only hope he retains that despite Life doing its best to knock it out of him.
@ Jane - or movie maker. Yes!
@ Ann - me too. My imagination is one of my most precious possessions.
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