So my daughter lost her tooth yesterday. Not an unusual affair for a kid. She was so excited, that she took her half bleeding tooth stuffed it into a plastic bag and snuck it under her pillow. “ The tooth fairy is coming tonight” she remarked. “ Yes she is, so lets keep it safe”, I replied with certainty, a little concerned at her bleeding gum that she was ignoring.
Of course you and I both know that there is no tooth fairy. We replace the tooth in the stealth of night and exchange it usually for money. The price of teeth seems to have gone up exponentially. We have reached the dizzy heights of a $1 a tooth now ! I remember it used to be 1 cent. But she believes in it, her brother has become more skeptical.
Later that night I exclaimed to the wifey “ Why do we perpetuate these lies?” Tooth fairies, Easter bunnies, elf on the shelf at christmas, leprechauns on St Patrick’s day, Santa ( I know he is real though for sure) etc. but is this how lying begins in the psyche of the children. Or is there more?
The reason why I continue with them is not because I am trying to lie to the kids or keep them beholden to a fantasy. I try to stir their imagination. I am a proponent of imaginary play, non screen time, and play therapy.
Hours of dramatic play brings wonder to the brain cells and links the creative and the logical sides into harmonious dances. Anticipation of the imagination brings on new ideas and establishes connections within the brain that cannot be formed otherwise. It is when we are stuck to a fantasy then it becomes a problem to get regrounded to reality.
We naturally will evolve out of our fantasies. For example when my daughter found a collection of her teeth at the bottom of a drawer, she freaked out and thought it was her parents who were hiding the teeth and not the tooth fairy, till her little brain came up with another excuse that the fairy had too many pickups and could not carry them all that night and so dropped them off and would fetch them later. The brain automatically makes up excuses to fit the narrative.
I wonder if the problem with adulthood is that we forget how to imagine as kids and then lose this gift as we grow up, as we subordinate to peers, teachers, parents and society. It is the dreamers who will bring the world to the next level of evolution, not those who have no imagination or creativity beyond themselves. It is the rule breakers who will transform the planet, for the followers will follow and never grow as they die into infamy of their own lost purposes.
Be spontaneous, be young in the heart, and be open in the mind. There is much magic in the world. Magic is another word for what is unknown or unexplained, and that is sometimes a great way to be, giving room for the unknown to birth the known.
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I love you
