Lessons from Lego Blocks
When I was young, I remember being very fond of playing with Lego blocks. I guess I was an imaginative kid. I had this whole bucket of loose Lego blocks (some were previously parts of sets). I made space ships, fortresses, cars, and all sorts of things.
Then I would keep these sets atop the piano for safekeeping, only to find out the next day that these have been packed away, much to my consternation.
All my lego blocks would be back in the bucket, ready for building new things.
Just today, I got to be on the other end of the packing away. I was clearing my study (which also serves as the kids’ play room), when my daughter tearfully complained about my packing away the monster she modeled out of mega blocks. I told her she can just create another monster, and helped her re-do the creature out of the blocks. She was mad at me for a while, but was satisfied when she was able to do a bigger, better monster.
There’s a lesson to be learned here, I thought. And this quote from Batman Begins comes to mind: Why do we fall? … So we can learn to pick ourselves up.
Lego models weren’t meant to last forever. But Lego pieces probably are. Whatever you build on these blocks will probably crumble and fall as fast as you can say “Lego.” But one thing’s for sure–you learn basics of building. You learn to use your imagination to create something from scratch. And when your creation comes to naught, you learn to pick yourself up and rebuild from the pieces.
Life’s like that, anyway, isn’t it?
Like I always like to tell myself–you learn something from your kids every day.
What do you think?