THE DRAMA OF BEING A CHILD by Alice Miller (Virago, 1987)
Alice Miller (1923 – 2010)
‘It’s never too late to have a happy childhood’ is a quote attributed to the American author Tom Robbins, although I have a feeling that someone else said it before him.
The sentiment behind these words should be immediately obvious – age is just a state of mind (I wish!) and being too eager to put away childish things doesn’t necessarily make you a more grounded adult.
I don’t think it is supposed to endorse the behaviour of those who never properly grow up or to celebrate immaturity.
We can try to keep a childlike sense of wonder towards the world around us and stay as open as possible to new experiences but ,the older you get, the harder it is to preserve this level of purity.
As a compensation, it can be rewarding to try to see things through the eyes of your own kids or of other children you encounter.
An aphorism for Alice Miller’s book would be decidedly less snappy and more cynical. It would have to be something like: “It’s never to late to realise that the childhood you always thought was happy wasn’t so marvellous after all”. Continue reading
