Killing Fairies

Originally published on Halushki.

One of the most important responsibilities - nay, obligations - of any parent is, I think, to encourage our children's daily awareness of all that is magical and mysterious in our great, big fantastical world.

And, yes, I am a hippie.

To point our children toward a sly glimpse of the crystalline fairies in a drop of dew....

To wonder in awe at Titan voices booming across the evening sky during a summer thunderstorm....

To marvel at orchestras captured on silver discs, musicians trapped like microscopic genies to be released in song only at the listener's wish and command....

Ah bliss! Ah joy!

To support and stimulate their creative selves and thusly nourish their hearts and souls with the food of poets and saints!

(And I'm not talking cigarettes and day-old baguettes.)

But, as a bittersweet fact of life, every day my children grow a bit older and, so too, a bit too wise for the world's magic.

Mostly, I blame science.