Globes, Wonderment and Oh, I Dunno...what else?

I spotted these globes last week in a book store in downtown Montreal, one of those places that besides books, tempts you with all kinds of nicknacks like book-ends, Liberty-print gardening tools, candles, sofa throws and well, globes. These are the kinds of things that lead me to picture myself snug at home, reading, pensive, content - not at home, faced with creating a Power Point presentation, tracing my finger across the top of a poster, leading me to forgo the aforementioned presentation, because dusting takes precedence, right? (Let me clarify that at no other time than when I am avoiding something does dusting take precedence).

Anyway, these globes made me think about the light-up globe I had in my room when I was a kid. (Which, if you know me at all, I naturally wish I still owned). I would spin the globe and stop it with a jab of my finger, the spot where it landed indicating the exciting location that would someday be my home. The good thing about being self-employed at the age of seven years old is that if you don't like where your boss is trying to send you (in this case, my finger), you can simply spin the globe again until you've determined the best place for you. Schenectady not exotic enough for you? Spin again! Minsk a little too exotic? Give it the finger!

When we're kids, the world is so inconceivably big and full of wonderment. A place holds untold mysteries, a dinosaur bone conjures worlds of giant lumbering creatures bigger than we can imagine (though I'd still try; big as our house? Would it fit in to St. Francis' schoolyard? Do you think I might find a fossil back where the rhubarb's growing?). Kids see the world in technicolor and - how else can I describe this? - in layers. Layers of mystery and intrigue and connections and questions to be asked, the answers which lead you to yet more questions. (No wonder kids have such a hard time standing still - small bodies filled with so many thoughts!)

I am sure I've lost some of my curiosity, though not deliberately. I think as I've gotten older I feel I have less mental energy to spread. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the downside is that it gets easier to make conclusions and not even think to question them. Some conclusions are fine to just sit with, but others I sense stopped serving me a long time ago. These are the ones that can paddle my behind, render me stuck and become second nature-type thinking. I think every human being becomes susceptible to this. And if you (like me) can't necessarily catch and re-rout those thoughts right off the bat, my sense is you've won a serious victory by at least pausing long enough to doubt them. Patterns can become so easy to slip into - so comfortable, as I've described them more than once - that it's easy to lose sight of the fact that the life you live as a result of them are anything but comfortable.

This post was supposed to be about my love of travel, how I've wanted to explore the world since I was a kid and still find myself wanting to spend a year or two - at least! - living in Europe. But wonderment led to thinking about curiousity and thought patterns and fear - my theory is that fear has a lot to do with keeping us stuck in those thoughts and actions that deserve to be rendered obsolete - and that led me to where I am right now. And where is that, Pam? Well, wondering how to end this paragraph, over a tasty bowl of Thai shrimp salad my sister just kindly brought me. Oof, I'm stuck...how to end it?

(OK, this post is now officially over)