Cracked Pot Meditations – Inner Child

Meditation for February 21st, 2016
Inner Child
A lot of us take the world very seriously. We work hard and we look at play as a luxury of the rich and or lazy. Sometimes our therapists and spiritual advisor tells us to get in touch with our inner child so we can return to that stage of innocence, playfulness and curious wonder. For some of us, we were robbed of a childhood forced to grow up fast, so getting in touch with an inner child is allowing ourselves to be childlike for the first time.
The first thing you should do is realize that children are needy, thoughtless idiots. Lose touch with that little twerp. Instead, get in touch with your inner old man.
Standing at your front door with your pants jacked up to your nipples wondering what the heck the neighbor cat is really up to. You walk the fine line of wisdom and dementia induced insanity. You keep everything you might need in all your pockets. You get to have a childlike wonder mixed with a been-there-done-that mentality. People don’t expect a lot from an old man, so manners and etiquette is not necessary.
Children have no experience in life and the farther back you go, the smaller your world is. Not having the shiny thing at the supermarket is end of the world for you. An old man knows just how insignificant a human is in the vast violent universe, but chooses to ignore the hugeness of the world around him just to be a butt head about a point.
Is the fool a young innocent person trying to discover the world for the first time, or is the fool an old man bumbling around at the twilight of life, knowing that everything is absurd?
Prayer
Odin,
with your one eye and raven,
help me forget my youthful ego,
and learn to keep mashed potatoes in my breast pocket.
Give me the power to be obsessed with what the neighbors are up to,
the ever changing thesis on traffic patterns,
keeping an eye on the weather,
and sleeping with my mouth open, pointed at the ceiling making an orchestra of gurgling snores.
Shake off the need to dress hip,
or have any idea what music people are listening to,
but keep those darn kids off my lawn!
Amen.
Craft
Things that go into your pockets:
Pocket knife
A rock or two
Pen or stubby pencil
Pad of paper
Wallet full of useless receipts and every business card there is and some notes. Wallets should be no thinner than 3 1/2 inches. You may keep your wallet in any pocket, but bonus points for breast pocket.
Glasses
Handkerchief
Nail clippers
Hard candy
Lose lint and hard candy wrappers
Loose food
Money clip
AA coin and or lucky poker chip
Two dollar bill
Loose change equaling $10 or more. The less in quarters the better.
Some other currency coins. Especially from countries you never been or plan on going
Mini flashlight
Yo-yo
Favorite Bazooka Joe comic
Old Readers Digest bent in half and stuffed in back pocket ready for bathroom breaks on the move.
Crow feather
Extra underwear – for obvious reasons.
Goal
Losing the need for attention and the approval of others is what being your inner old man is. It doesn’t matter what gender you are, the inner old man is an attitude and philosophy we can all adopt. Study old men if you have a hard time knowing what to do. Go to the hardware store all the time and befriend all the people that work there. Wink a lot. If people bother you, shit yourself. Get lost. Be easily confused. Tell people, whether they want to listen or not, how things used to be. All things cost too much. Yell when you are on the phone. The point is to be insane and remember, you might be acting like a fool, but the joke is in them.