CHILDISHNESS
COUNTERFEIT OF DELIGHT
An unlived childhood leaking out of an adult: the tantrums, the refusal of consequence, the need to be the centre of the room. Not too much child — a child who never got his turn, still trying to take it at forty, from people who are not his parents. The retrieved child is its exact opposite.
THE TELL
Enjoying, or collecting? Delight was had, and is free to simply be enjoyed. Childishness is still owed — and still collecting.
FORMULA DIFF
- −“this is a gift I didn't earn”
nothing is being received — something is still owed
- +Anger
the tantrum is a collection notice
- +Cortisol
the unpaid childhood reads as ongoing threat
- Joy
- Surprise
THE GENUINE ARTICLE
DELIGHT
What the play is for. Joy at the game itself — arriving in person, unpriced, never wages: no charter can schedule a visit, because the engine that pays meaning was never delight's employer. Gratitude, felt from the other side of the line.
TRAINED BY — Not trained — retrieved. It comes back out of the vault with the kid, which is why children need no instruction in it. The adult version stands on a positive charter's steady baseline and remains unearned on top of it.
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