A Night at the Carnival

Have you ever experienced the joy of a school carnival? Really, I am being serious, it is a magical place. Children all getting along, parents not killing children, teachers smiling at their toughest cases, even older brothers and sisters joining in. It is truly an experience that in unlike any other.




I sat watching tonight at such a carnival, held at a local elementary school. They had of all things a Karaoke booth. Now, to some of us, it is impossible to actually catch a note, let alone hit one on key. The idea of singing in public is almost as scary as arriving in North Dakota and finding a wood chipper waiting for you.



None the less, I sat and witnessed as a line formed of the future American Idol contestants. They belted out Taylor Swift song after song and missed the majority of the notes, but were braver than most adults I know, even after a couple of shots of tequila.



They held raw belief of doing something for the sheer fun of doing it, simply singing loud and proud for the joy of singing, children dreaming of what a future on stage would really feel like. I sat wondering where and when most adults lost that voice. Not the singing voice, listen at any stop light in the summer with the windows down and you will know that voice hasn’t gone very far, but the voice of fearlessness.



Another of the Carnival games was simply a jumping house rented from a local party place. Again, not one parent made an attempt to join in the bouncing free-for-all. Why? They even had chairs sat along the wall for parents to wait respectably for their children to finish jumping and playing. When did the idea of jumping up and down become beneath us? Now, for a few of you reading this, you are laughing out loud, because you know the idea went out the window as soon as you hit the age of 13 and were female, but for the rest of you, myself included, that is just a cop out.



So I have a challenge for you, take one day this weekend and do something juvenile. Anything. Find a trampoline and go jump for a while, hit the park and swing as high as you can, or you could even just color a picture, making sure to stay in the lines. So something fun. I know you want to, I can feel you thinking, ya-but this and ya-but that. Your right, ya-butt needs to have a little fun!



After you are done with your juvenile task, take a moment and think about how it felt and vow to do it again. It seems silly I know, but really I believe youth is a state of mind and why not get your mind back there as often as possible? Who knows, maybe you will be belting out Karaoke at the next school Carnival.