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Forget the floorboard

Ever seen a 4 year old trip over a floorboard and fall face down ? She ll get up in a second, cry because she bruised herself and it hurts, complain to her mom that the floorboard tripped her and ask that it be given a beating. You play along, scold the floor and show her a red napkin with yellow flowers on it. In a jiffy, the crying has vanished, the pain forgotten and the floorboard forgiven. In walks a 40 year old, trips over the same floorboard- doesn't fall- just stumbles- and she curses in the air, complains to the staff working in the store that they shouldn't have put such uneven floorboards, that they should have warning signs, talks loudly about how her dress has been ruined because one crease is now out of place, frets over her make up which may have smudged when her hand accidentally brushed past her lip while she stumbled, worries about how stupid she may have looked (in front of all those people!) and goes over to her family to explain the 'gory' details of what may have been a rather bad Fall.

What is it that changes in all those years from 4 to 40? Someone must be secretly messing with those connections in your brain that tell you pain from pleasure. A 3 year old will proudly tell you that last year she met a little baby (yes- littler than her) that burped all the time and giggle over and over again about that. Ask her where she got that bruise on her knee- I bet you a million bucks she ll shrug and say "I don't know" or make up a long tale about her great fall from the zebra's back that will be so fantastic! The 40 year old is still complaining about the floorboard that tripped her last year and has a faint- very faint memory of her cousin's wedding celebrations last month.

We so often remember like an elephant - remember not what made us skip in flirtatious happiness but what made us fret over reactions that we had no control over in the first place; what someone said or did that made me angry, what someone should or should not have done, what someone said about someone else, what may have been implied, what was that tone again? Rude? Angry? But how dare he! Emotions and relationships see-saw through every season of the year and you already worry about how summer will treat your best friend's temper next year! Remember the Ice gola at Bandstand? No? Sorry goldfish memory!

I want to be 4 all my life. Show me a red napkin with yellow flowers and make me forget every floorboard that ever tripped me, no matter how bad! I pledge to remain 4 all my life. Wanna join?

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