How A Goofy Banana Costume Healed My Existential Angst
Lessons from my 11-year-old about how we move through the world.
The great thing about 11-year-olds — or at least my 11-year-old — is that she’s at that age where Halloween is still fun, but a much simpler undertaking than it once was. The caffeine-fueled nights and blistering hot glue gun burns in the service of elaborate homemade Halloween costumes are a thing of the past in our house and I couldn’t be happier.
This year, my daughter is dressing up for Halloween as — wait for it — a banana.
Her costume consists of two store-bought items: A plush banana hat-mask type thing and a pair of sunglasses. She threw it all on, approved heartily of her reflection in the mirror and decided to wear it — with no protest from me — for the remainder of the day.
I mean, why not? Walking around in a goofy costume is one of the great privileges of childhood.
Or at least in my opinion it is. And thank goodness for it because spending the day with a kid dressed as a banana?
Well, it was the soul balm I didn’t even know I needed.
I am a long-time sufferer of existential angst. Perhaps this is due to excessive viewings of Dead Poets’ Society at a formative age, but I have…
