August 21, 2014
Bonsai people
There’s a reason shrinks talk so much about childhood.
It’s because we’re all bonsai people.
You sculpt a bonsai by wrapping wire around the tender trunk and branches of a sapling, then bending it into aesthetically pleasing directions.
In our case, the wire that bends and shapes us is childhood experience.
Unmet needs. Unexpressed feelings. Unresolved conflicts. Unhealed wounds.
Even when the visible wire is removed — decades pass, parents die, kids get big — its effects remain, for good or ill.
The child is father to the man.
The sins of the fathers are visited upon the children.
We’re all bonsai people.
August 21st, 2014 at 3:00 am
And when you can get the courage to trim back those branches, it allows new shoots to grow. It may require a strong pair of pliers to cut through the wire but I’ve always loved gardening. It’s so therapeutic.