'You are like that kite. Tied down by the limitations created by your own mind. Break free. Live!' "
I read this lovely bit of writing in another blog and my cynical mind immediately flashed back to when I flew kites as a boy. What I remembered was that when the kite string broke the kite did NOT fly free; it fluttered to earth where it would lay helpless and inert.
Being fond of metaphors, I then thought of how this actual behavior of kites was a more accurate reflection of our lives. We need something that tethers us to reality if we are going to soar, without it we crash. What is the string that keeps us "flying" at the same time it binds us to one spot? Who is holding the string? Who can stretch a metaphor to the breaking point?
There certainly is a time in our lives, usually our teens, when we want to cut all those strings. We question why our parents and society have told us to act certain ways and we may even actively rebel against many of those rules. Good for us! With no questions and no rebellion, there would be no progress. The tricky part is in learning what things to rebel against and what to embrace. Maturity, in part, is learning what parts to hang on to; what strings do we need to keep us airborne.
My generation, coming to maturity in the 1960s was one of the most rebellious in history. We questioned everything we were told was true. One of our most notorious protesters famously said, "Never trust anyone over thirty." We challenged many things, like the Vietnam war and racial segregation, that needed to be challenged, and we also tended to "throw the baby out with the bath water." If parents or government or church said it was good, we rejected it. So along with equal rights and an end to that particularly hideous and pointless war we also promoted indiscriminate sex and drug use. We broke the string, and many of us crashed to the ground. We also soared.
I've been trying to finish this for some time now, to bring it to some sort of conclusion, to make some point. No such luck. I've had some fun playing with a metaphor, and touched a couple of old memories, so I'll just have to be satisfied with that.
I am in many ways fighting that battle now. Confused about which strings to cut lose and which not to......
ReplyDeleteThanku Grandpa :)
It was a link on one of your posts https://ilirianravings.wordpress.com/ that led me to the quote that starts this essay. Thank you.
DeleteLife is like this post - ups and downs and sometimes extremes that throw us for a loop. I guess we hope for a soft landing when we crash and an open sky when we soar. :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by, and commenting. Reader comments are definitely one of life's ups.
DeleteIt is a great post and I'm glad you shared it.We did grow up in a fascinating time but I think many of us did just cut the string and forget about all of the things we thought were important -- and many of them were! We as a country have made some great strides recently but I really thought we would have done them all many years ago. We had such dreams...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kc. I always appreciate your encouraging comments.
DeleteI had a moment to read this post and the few before it. So sensitive, gentle, and beautiful. All of them. I well remember the 60s and the anguish over that awful war. I too, wish I had told my mother how I appreciated the manual work she did for us (ironing, for example) that is now obsolete. And I do wish I had allowed more people to help me out when they offered!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by and commenting, J. It's always appreciated.
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ReplyDeleteKites need to break free and fly their own way now and then. Which is what you did with this post by not tying it up all nice and neat. It's a wonderful thing... and lovely thoughts on the metaphor. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteExcellent post! I loved this.
ReplyDeleteSomeone once told me in raising children, just give them enough rope to not hang themselves...too much string and the kite gets caught in a tree or high wire, not enough and it crashes in a wind gust.