Where the Wild Things Are

The book: I loved the concept, except the chasing the dog and the punitive parenting part of sending the boy off without dinner. I still read it with my son and trusted that he was taking what he wanted from it or he wouldn't be asking me to read it over and over. Besides, who could resist such awesome art!!! I had lots of childhood attachments to it, so I was sad to see those areas of discomfort (mentioned earlier) for me. The movie: omg, I LOVED the cinematography, the costumes, the actors, the acting, the soundtrack (listening to it as we speak -- my inspiration to write this blog), the symbolism from the original book -- just amazing. There was a lot of exciting wildness in it!! Lots of fun ideas to play with and explore more. My biggest concern with the movie is something that I see reflected in a greater understanding: that "wild" inevitably leads to what I understood as dysfunction. Yes, wild is messy and can be hurtful, physically and emotionally, but I feel like there is so much wonderful stuff that comes from living free that was not touched upon in the movie. One of my favorite things to do is think of how I would do things differently given the chance (an opportunity for critical thinking and how I love tailoring and personalizing my life), and it is full of opportunities for that, which is why I am writing this. For the record, I was sharing about this with Kassidy yesterday, and I said I felt like the dysfunction in the wild things was a reflection of the dysfunction in Max's life at that point. Figured I would toss that out, for what it's worth :)) I want to play with lots of ideas about being wild and develop my own understanding of it and how it feels before I read the book "Women Who Run With Wolves". I have picked up on bits from my life and from my educational background in psychology that leave me with the feeling that wild and free is healing and naturally organizing. It's kinda the opposite of dysfunction. And it is one big reason I chose and love witnessing unschooling. Not all unshoolers are so passionate about being wild, about raising ferrel and uncaged and free-roaming kids. I am passionate about witnessing my kids being true to themselves in their own right and refining things as they see fit. Sometimes it is messy, and I can find myself unpacking stuff from my past through the experiences, and it is all perfect, and I love every moment of it :)