It has been sad news to hear that our American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak died a couple of weeks ago and I spent that day reminiscing over the radio program "Fresh Air with Terri Gross" I tearful drank my coffee and thought about what an talented, gifted emotional man Maurice was. His kindness towards Terri made the program feel very intimate and trusting, I also cried because I remember where I was a couple of years before in that interview....LIFE changes quickly takes us away from where we would like to stay....The day Maurice died Terri Gross replayed that interview with him in honor and in respect and I listened again connected and in awe! I think Childhood is the darkest time in one's life, nothing is in our personal control, everything is new, scary and not yet explained....WE as child try desperately to survive it all! THIS is why it is also the most magical time in our lives as well, because we face these fears and these struggles with vivid imagination to escape and create a perfect world for our first years on this earth...We haven't been "trained" yet to hide our honesty, to hide our fears and pains. We haven't been controlled yet by a certain image of success to obtain, a way to make as much money before we died...We are JUST kids, we are all beginning to live life with all the friends and magical creatures to comfort us all the way...Maurice Sendak "Got" this when he wrote and drew up the child's book "Where the Wild Things are." Our society is lost from the true nature of children, the way we should be teaching and caring over them.....While also letting them go off on adventures in the park, leaving them completely alone to day dream and relax. Adults think these childhood years are for education and a perfect score card in sports, hobbies and talents....When a child cries out or screams the parent can choose to react as a comforter or as a Commander...I sadly see it all to often the parent thinks the child SHOULD behave like themselves but the raw truth is the child is far smarter then the adult ALWAYS WILL BE. You can know and understand a list of facts but if you do not know how to react in a honest way to the emotions you feel then You should come back to your childhood and believe again in the awe of life! When I worked at the mall on sunny warm summer days I saw children in strollers screaming in tears and the parents flustered with confusion and embarrassment, I would say out loud or to myself "Don't you see it? In their faces, these children KNOW it's a nice day outside they could be at the park or at least in a happier place then THIS!"
The book "Where the Wild Things are" shows us the depth Children have, somewhere over growing up and learning to be "Institutionalized" We loose our connection to our imagination, to our wild and furry friends! Maurice came back to his inner kid and cultivated that in his adulthood. The stories he wrote and the pictures he drew where of his way of helping us along when the helplessness of being a kid made us grow up to fast! The purity lays within our hearts and souls as the magical spiritual world unfolds and we talk with our friend Carol!
Goodbye Maurice, May you rest in peace while enjoying one more amazing new adventure up in the clouds with everyone else!
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