I like to warn people that I'm very immature for my age. As each year goes by that becomes less and less true. But it's still a motto I like to live by. And it seems to make people laugh.
Children have such innocence. Sure they ingeniously work up their tricks and schemes over time. But they approach life with wide eyes and open minds, willing to believe wanting to learn. And they approach life without the prejudices our life experiences have silently heaped upon us.
I do think that it's important, no matter what the age, to keep a little of that childlike enthusiasm inside.
Once, many years ago, I was working in a press shop. I was the art director and I roamed the plant once or twice a day to check out how jobs I designed and set-up for production were working out. It was invaluable. How did I screw up? How did I do well? How can I do better?
Deadlines in press production are often a little insane. One day on one of my walks back through the plant I saw a friend, working a magazine through a folding and stitching machine. I could tell he was worked up. His voice was raised. His body darted about the machine. His face was stiff with anxiety. He was trying to make an impossible deadline.
I snuck up behind him and whispered in his ear, "I like puppies," and I walked away.
I glanced back. He was looking at me walk away. He was still stone faced, still feeling the stress. Then suddenly he broke up in uncontrollable laughter.
At the end of the day he came up to me in my office. He had just finished the crunch job on deadline. He said to me "What the heck was that 'I like puppies' comment?"
I smiled and just shrugged my shoulders.
He smiled back, and walking away he said, "Thanks, I needed that."
We all need that from time to time.
So keep jumping out of those armoires Bill!!!
teeheehee
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