The car is where I have some of the best conversations with the girls. Maybe it’s because I have to be attentive to what’s being said when I’m driving. It’s the only time my high-strung body is strapped in and focused, undistracted by chores or my phone. And so I listen better in the car.
A few days ago the 1st Grader said on our way down the interstate, “You know, Momma… I believe in mermaids.” And then she proceeded to explain how pirates probably saw them and how they’re likely still out in the ocean today but we just don’t see them as often.
Her: Do you think mermaids exist?
Me: They might. I’ve never seen one, but I don’t think it’s impossible.
She smiled and nodded and seemed satisfied with that evasive answer. This week she’s doing a Dr. Seuss camp and celebrating all kinds of imaginative creatures and conversations. She loves fantasy and story—the wilder and more wondrous, the better.
I’ve never been drawn to fantasy or sci-fi. I know it’s almost blasphemous to admit it, but I’ve never cared much about Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings. But I’m starting to wonder if I’m missing out on something important by only reading or watching works in the non-fiction and/or reality genres. Somehow I never even read anything by Madeleine L’Engle as a child. So this summer I am making a point to read A Wrinkle in Time and one of her non-fiction books, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art.
In the first chapter of Walking on Water, L’Engle says:
“We lose our ability to see angels as we grow older, and that is a tragic loss…
“The artist, if he is not to forget how to listen, must retain the vision which includes angels and dragons and unicorns and all the lovely creatures which our world put in a box marked Children Only.”
It’s so true that we lose our interest in fantasy and things we can’t understand as we get older. We start talking a lot more than we listen. We prioritize doing over dreaming. Seeing over believing.
But I don’t want to “forget how to listen” to what my kids are talking and dreaming about. I don’t want to miss what God might be saying to me and all around me in things I don’t understand.
This is the picture the 1st Grader brought home from camp yesterday:
If you can’t quite tell, it’s a diver taking a picture of a mermaid he has come across in the ocean.
My youngest artist thinks everything about this picture is possible and probable. And all I know is— I’m just going to listen and try to imagine again that it is.
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