Re Enchant Yourself

7:35 pm Saturday evening. I'm stuck at work, but no one is currently bothering me and I hear thunder--I'm content for now. Except I as soon as I typed that, I developed a case of the hiccups. Contentment doesn't last long does it? At least not as one ages.

Now, I know 27 isn't exactly ancient, but it'd old enough to remember being young and longing for it.

Normally I am not the type of person who comes back from an inspirational training seminar all geeked up to take over the world. I listen, I say my piece, I glean what information I need and I implement it where I deem necessary. However, during this customer service training session the other day, the gentleman on the video said something that struck a chord within me. He said that we need to re enchant ourselves with life. We need to become enchanted like we were as children, when everything was new and different and wonderful.

A lot of the time I feel enchanted with life. I imagine this is what makes me a writer--to see the enchantment in the ordinary. However, sometimes I feel it makes me seem naive or immature. In the long run, seeming that way to a few people isn't a big deal, but what does that say about our society? We can't be excited by life or we come off like we have a mental illness? Only "simple" people smile all the time because they don't know any better? Or on the same hand, only disillusioned people like very religious people smile like that or have manners like that because something is wrong with them.

Why can't an ordinary person be happy, polite, see wonder in the world and still be considered intelligent? Sure there are problems in the world, but there is a lot that is right as well... sometimes you may have to look a little bit harder, but it's there.

Or this even.. to believe in something that is a little extraordinary, like ghosts or aliens--or in perpetual motion, or time travel. Don't we want people to believe in things a little out there? Isn't that how we ended up with all of current technology? Sending pictures or voices through the air and having them arrive mere seconds later thousands of miles away? Sounds like magic to me. Don't we want people to think outside of the box?

If so, then why does our society and our schools encourage disenchantment with life? Why do we encourage the status-quo? Why do we limit the creativity of our youth in order for them to fit in? Is what other people think about us so important that we limit what our futures could hold?