Driving down to the beach, I surprised the boys with the movie "Where The Wild Things Are".  We saw it as a family at the theater when it was released, but haven't seen it since.  It is one of our favorite books to read...and I am forever saying "I can eat you up I love you" to the both of them.  As the movie neared the end, we had stopped to get a sub.  Jonathan had gone inside and I sat in the vehicle with the boys.  I could see the tears welting up in Elliott's eyes....he was sad that Max was going to leave the wild things and thought Carol would not make it to say goodbye before he left.  He was sobbing at the end even though Carol made it on the movie he and Max "howled" to one another. 

It's moments like this that remind me that Elliott gets more than most ever will.  He gets the meanings, he gets the emotions, he gets what is real.  That is awesome as a parent to see your child achieve such an authentic sense of self....I pray they never lose that innocence and wild wonderment that comes with age and life experiences.  I hope they recognize the '"wild things" that represent parts of their lives. To see another way to manage anger instead of like Carol who likes to smash things too and doesn't know how to communicate his feelings. To work together like KW, to trust that you'll be protected even if you feel you are entering the mouth of a monster.  The moral is, usually, if we watch our bad behavior on film or see someone else acting like us when we are bad then it makes us have more insight and want to behave differently. That is what Max did. He realized though them that his family was important and his family would always love him no matter what. Supper would be waiting....and it would still be warm.

In the movie a parent can also experience a sense of loss of sorts...a moment when a film can take you back to childhood memories of make believe, monsters, and wild imagination....and then as Max did...sail away back to reality...to the land of "grown ups".  I am not exactly sure when it happens, when you start to give up the childlike ways of youth because we want to be independent and think we know it all.  Funny how, as you age, you earn to get back to the "throw your hands into the wind as you spin around on a merry go round".  How you want to go back to worry free days and when eannie meanie miney mo decided your biggest decision for the day.  And if you are one of the lucky ones, you find a way back to that part of your inner self, that part that still exists, and your life is reborn and you set out and sail to a world of new discovery.  It's then that the Wild Rumpus Begins!!