Perception
I grew up in a bungalow across the street from a little park with very old oaks and no playground. I remember playing in our lawn when I was about 5 years old and thought to myself, "That park is so big. I wonder what the other side of it looks like..." My parents would allow me to roam across the street to the park at that young age, but I was never allowed to venture beyond the "three oaks" in the center. And I didn't. Besides, it seemed so far away.
Skip forward to 6th grade. Same house. Same park. The three oaks rule had been lifted for quite some time (I don't know if it was lifted as much as it had just been a non-issue for years). I was standing on our front porch and all of a sudden the park, as it had been, became a memory and before me sat a new park... but it was the same. It wasn't a gradual realization, but more of an instant "whoa" moment. It looked different. It looked smaller. The far end of the park was no longer an adventure. I'd been there and back several times and, perhaps, took for granted that it had been an adventure only a few years back. "That was weird."
Skip forward 10 years - my daughter is one year old. Several neighbors have come and gone with the years, and some of the neighborhood newbies request that the city install a small playground at the park to make it more user-friendly. I take Maddie to the park daily to swing, climb and meet little friends. Suddenly, I stand back and realize that I'm just beyond the three oaks. I close my eyes for a moment and am aware of a change. The park looks different. I recollect the memory from when I was 5 years old and a chill goes down my spine. "What just happened? This park was different five minutes ago." But I understand that I am changing, growing older, broadening the extent of my travels... and the park grows smaller as I grow older.
Skip to now. I had't had one of those moments in five years... until last night. I wanted to treat Maddie to dinner and an IMAX film (Robots - good flick) downtown. As we were eating dinner at Muddy Water's, I looked out the window and felt the "feeling" again. This time about my perception of downtown. It was different. It is different. Now, I think I can only describe the feeling as, "Oh crap. I just grew up again."
