Musings & Marginal Madness: Nostalgia, Growing Up, and Wonder Woman

            There’s something very interesting about missing a place.  Usually, it’s not the place itself that you miss, but the time associated with it.  I’ve been thinking about this recently as I’m within an hour drive of the small Midwestern town where I spent my middle school years.  On and off, I’ve entertained the idea of going back for a visit, but I’ve realized that it would be pointless.  It’s not really the small community with its adorable library or the creek in our backyard that I miss.  Rather, it’s the age, the people, the time of life that the place represents to me.

            I miss the carefree child I was then, how I would spend my time climbing trees or running barefoot down to the creek.  I sometimes wish I hadn’t come to care if my clothes got muddy.  Although, I think that has more to do with me doing my own laundry than anything.

            Growing up has good aspects to it, but it’s sad to lose the simplicity of childhood.  I suppose it is one of those things that is taken for granted until it’s gone, and sometimes even then you don’t recognize its departure.  I wish the world was the simple place it was when I was a child, yet I know that is impossible.  I have matured, shocking though that may be, and with that has come a greater understanding of the world where I live. 

I feel a bit like Wonder Woman as she’s portrayed in the live action movie that came out this past year.  When she was young she believed that humans were innately good and it was outside influences like that of Ares the God of War that caused men to fight and hate.  Then when she left her island and experienced the outside world she came to realize that her beliefs were flawed.  She was almost overwhelmed by the darkness she found within the hearts of humans; she almost gave into it herself, before discovering that humans have both good and evil in them.  Ultimately, she decided to become a champion of light and hope.

While I don’t think that comparison is completely apt as I am too out of shape to be an Amazon warrior, I do feel that there comes a point for each of us when we must realize that some of our long-held worldviews are incomplete or even wrong.  When those moments come, when we decide how we will go forward from that epiphany, those are the things that define who we are and who we will become. There is no going back.