Jumping for Joy

The following post is a subject that I think about often, and it is one that I have been wanting to write about for some time. Honestly, it will probably make an appearance a couple of times in this blog.

My birthday was this past Thursday. I had to work all day at my regular job Thursday, and then I had to teach class until 9:30 PM, so I couldn’t really celebrate it on the actual day. Some of my close friends asked me what I wanted to do to celebrate in lieu of plans on my actual birthday, and almost without thinking, I said, “I want to go to the pumpkin patch!” And so we made plans to go to the pumpkin patch this weekend.

Giant Jumping Pillow...
Had to remove boa as a safety precaution!

I was excited all week for the pumpkin patch. When the day came, I decided to wear a Halloween T-shirt, along with a purple feather boa. I mean, if you are going to the pumpkin patch for your birthday, you should do it in style, right?! I loaded up in the car with four other friends, and off we went to Center Grove Orchard.

We arrived, and I had a great time. We looked at all the animals…we watched the pig races…we raced down the giant slide…we jumped on the giant jumping pillow….we wandered around the corn maze…and of course, we traipsed around the pumpkin fields. I had a fantastic day celebrating my birthday and the loveliness of fall with my friends.

However, I am a bit perplexed by a couple of incidents I noticed in relationship to other adults. Many of the other adults present were there with children, and I noticed that while they encouraged their children to participate in the activities, they seldom participated in them themselves. For example, they would watch them jump on the jumping pillow, but they would stay on the sidelines. They also would help lead their kid up to the top of the giant slide, but instead of going down with the child, they would send their kid off, and they would walk away.

Now, I understand that not everyone loves to go bouncing around on a giant pillow, and I do not want to force them to do so.  I also understand that perhaps they had their hands full with other kids and this prevented them from completely engaging in all of the activities. However, I DO find it difficult to believe that there were not ANY other adults present at the pumpkin patch that wanted to participate in these activities. If this is true, what was stopping them from joining with their kids in the fun?

Before I go on my diatribe, I would also like to relay a similar story. Prior to this weekend, one of my acquaintances asked me what my plans were for my birthday, and I told her about the pumpkin patch. She looked at me with her eyes wide, and she told me, “Oh my gosh. I have been wanting to go, but my friends didn’t want to go with me. They were embarrassed to go without any kids with us.”

I find both of these attitudes confusing and heartbreaking. As I stated earlier, I understand that not everyone is as enthusiastic as I am about jumping on pillows and riding down slides. However, my concern is that there are people that ARE enthusiastic about these events, but they are unwilling to let themselves engage in these activities. Do adults think that they need children as buffers for their entertainment? Do they simply live vicariously through their children in order to enjoy these activities? And then if they don’t have children, they don’t even let themselves enjoy the activity because of the perceived shame and embarrassment associated?

I find this to be completely and utterly ridiculous, not to mention detrimental to our own sense of health and well-being. Sliding down a giant slide is an incredible release of spontaneous joy; it’s an expression of pure delight in a thrilling sensation.  Looking at pigs run around a track is a experience of pure amazement. Wandering around a corn maze is an invitation to imagination as you consider all of the possibilities lying before you. Why would someone hesitate to fully invest in these experiences?

Moreover, I am concerned about the message that this sends to children. The implicit message is, “Enjoy life while you are a kid, but when you are an adult, life is meant to be lived on the sidelines.” I do not want to send this implicit message to any child. Life should be joyous at all ages, and we should be encouraging our kids to continue to participate and create as they grow older. Life is more enjoyable this way, and it also encourages us to experience the joy on our own terms, as opposed to living vicariously through others. 

I am now 29 years old. I have a retirement account. I know how to cook. I work full-time for hospice, and I have watched more people die and pass into eternity than I sometimes care to remember. I also teach part-time for Simpson College. By society’s standards, I am clearly a responsible adult. And. And. And I am also a human being that wants to take delight in living. I dress up in costume for a day at the pumpkin patch. I’ve been known to still do cartwheels, especially when I am on a dance floor and I can’t think of any other dance moves. I clap my hands when I’m excited. I can display many behaviors traditionally associated with a child, AND I can also function as a professional adult. Like most things in life, the two roles are NOT mutually exclusive. 

My wish for everyone is that they would find joy and wonder at life at every age. That they can participate and create in their experiences and take delight in the opportunity. Maybe it’ll be different for everyone, but my wish is that we always look at the world in some form of radical amazement. The wonder and joy are always there; we just have to be willing to get outside of ourselves to find it.

"Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement...to get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed." - Abraham Joshua Heschel