It’s heartbreaking, the things we forget. Even experiencing them again later—the exact same things—often cannot remind us of their real truth, which is what they were like when we were children.

Birthday parties are a good example. Sure, adults put on cute paper hats scream, “Surprise!” and have a good goofy time. But that is only them being fake children. At a real kid’s party, joy goes hand in tightly held hand with greed, true rage, exultation. Winning musical chairs or getting a smaller slice of cake, a dumb present from your most important guest, can lift or drop you off the edge of your small earth. And most of all what we forget as adults is the dead seriousness of these details. To a child they are neither cute nor trivial, but rather the crux of those essential days.

from AFTER SILENCE