childhood – Baxleys.org

I just got done watching Citizen Kane for the very first time. Sure I knew what Rosebud was the whole time, so maybe I had extra sympathy for Kane from the beginning. But I wonder how many of use spend our whole life looking to find that one thing that can make us loved by everyone and thereby make us happy. When what we really want is to return to a simpler time. The pure joy that you hear in young Kane’s voice as he played in the snow at the beginning of the movie points to the joy of the simple things in life.

I think that we should all take the lessons of Kane to heart in that no matter how many things you collect, remember that the simple things in life can give you the most joy, but don’t wait until your dying breath to realize that and live it. Oh, and don’t wait 32 years to see this movie!

Puff the Magic Dragon lived by the sea,
and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee

Little Jackie Paper, loved that raskel Puff
and brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff.
A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys
painted wings and giant’s rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened Jackie Paper came no more
and Puff that Mighty Dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.

You have no idea how much that last part about little boys not living forever hurts when you have a little boy who at 6 months old already seems to be growing up too fast. When I sing that song to Noah, I choke up just a little when I sing that part.

I know that he’s only 6 months old and I have a lot of his growing up to live through yet, but maybe that’s what’s the scariest part. I’ve only just begun the journey. I’m certainly excited about watching him grow up, but I fear the day when he stops being a little boy and doesn’t want to play with POP the magic dragon.