Henry Miller's "The Fourteenth Ward" from Black Spring

Accidentally I re-stumbled upon this book while reading an interview with Bob Redford in the New Yorker. He nodded to Miller's essay in regards to a fascination that he had with New York in his younger years.

The essay begins: "I am a patriot--of the Fourteenth Ward, Brooklyn, where I was raised...I was born in the street and raised in the street...To be born in the street means to wander all your life, to be free..."

And then it continues: "Before the great change...The great fragmentation of maturity. The great change. In youth we were whole and the terror and pain of the world penetrated us through and through."

14th Ward tells of the play and imagination that we experienced as children viewing the world. How perception of the world was before we became the adults we are today. If we lose sight of the reality of the world there is the chance that the memories of our past and how we lived and experienced life as children might be forever lost. But fortunately "...one day, as if suddenly the flesh came undone and the blood beneath the flesh has coalesced with the air, suddenly the whole world roars again the the very skeleton of the body melts like wax."

Don't ever forget what it means to be a kid. Don't ever forget the inspired play that we experienced moment to moment as kids. Deny that you're over 30 now and have crossed over and had the big change. Remember life as a kid.