13 Comments
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Zach Hively's avatar

Way to lure me in with nostalgia and then knock the wind out of me, Andrea. That sense of fuzzy (or no) boundaries for play is incredibly hard for me, even though (or especially because?) I set my own limits.

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Andrea Hoffmann's avatar

I choose especially because…

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Gayle Beavil 🇨🇦's avatar

So sad when that light dims! 11 is the right age, yes. We can see it happening. So sad. More play is needed, and more folks willing to stick up for the right to boundaries between work like and other life, like the 20-something you described!

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Andrea Hoffmann's avatar

It didn’t even occur to us that such a boundary was an option!

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Leslie Senevey's avatar

Life is so mundane without the ability to deep dive into our imaginations on a regular basis. Of course, this is preaching to the choir when amongst writers. We'd live there full time if we could!

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Andrea Hoffmann's avatar

I'm off in lala land all the time, imagining conversations and scenes!

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Notes From A Cre8ive Mind's avatar

Yes to all of this. Without those little fibs and sparks to the figments of my imagination I would never have endeavored to write, design or create. They didn’t make me delusional, they made me dream of what could be and gave me faith in the possibilities.

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Andrea Hoffmann's avatar

Exactly. The awe and wonder made me dream too.

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Raine Fraser's avatar

Beautiful, true, and heartbreaking.

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Andrea Hoffmann's avatar

I feel so bad for kids who are robbed of the magic of youth and adults who spend a lifetime forgetting

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Kilovar 1959's avatar

Imaginative play has real world applications. I had "action figures" before we called them that, and hours of play making up imaginary worlds. I was an early sci-fi reader too.

Later I life when I started working with electricity, it let imagine the power flowing down the wires and the magnetic fields they made. My imagination may not be correct, but it works

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John Horwitz's avatar

Childhood and the age of being innocent are all too short - children get old before they grow up. What we can do - all we can do is give them Roots and Reins and be there for them when they need us.

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Andrea Hoffmann's avatar

Truly too short.

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