In particular, the truth of “When I Grow Up”, an amazing song from the RSC musical “Matilda”. The lyrics and music is written by Tim Minchin, so it’s hardly surprising that the song is so wonderful and clever, but the truth behind the lyrics have really got me thinking – I’m in one of those deep “everything makes me think” moods, but this song in particular has made me think about all the things we promise ourselves when we’re children – and how, when we do grow up, they’re suddenly not important anymore, and we forget about it. Here’s some of the lyrics – and the truth behind them!
When I grow up,
I will be tall enough to reach the branches
That I need to reach to climb the trees
You get to climb when you’re grown up.
With this one, I think one of the biggest challenges most kids encounter is never quite being tall enough to climb that one elusive tree. You just know there’s going to be an amazing view at the top, and there might be all sorts of wonders in the higher branches – but you can’t quite reach it, and if you could grow up just that little bit more, you’d be able to reach it. Then, you hit your teenage years, go through a growth spurt, and although you can reach those branches easy peasy, suddenly the thought of climbing that tree doesn’t appeal as much anymore. You might still do it, just because you can, but at the end of the day, it’s just a tree. The views are okay, but nothing that you probably couldn’t have seen if you just stood on your tiptoes, and there’s nothing hiding in those branches other than leaves.
And when I grow up,
I will eat sweets every day,
On the way to work, and I will
Go to bed late every night.
Ah, I’m sure many of us have shouted this at our parents at least once in our lives – “When I grow up, I’ll eat sweets every day”, or “When I grow up, I won’t have a bedtime!”. Then you get older, and the way you look starts to matter, and your health gets important, and the thought of eating sweets every day doesn’t sound so attractive. You also start to realize that sleep is one of the most beautiful treasures known to man, and you want as much of it as you can get – suddenly, staying up late doesn’t sound like such a great idea.
And I will wake up
When the sun comes up
Like before – when you’re little, sleep is boring. You don’t get to play games when you’re asleep. You don’t get to go running or play football or with your toys when you’re asleep – you just lie in your bed and sleep. How boring, right? Until you hit your late teenage years, when a lie-in is the best thing in the world, and waking up any time before 10am is worthy of lots of complaining and grumbling and a whole day of being miserable. Gone are the days of jumping on your parents’ bed, demanding to go downstairs and watch cartoons or get outside and play. Now it’s your parents who are faced with the task of trying to drag you out of bed to go to school/college/work.
When I grow up,
I will be brave enough to fight the creatures
That you have to fight beneath the bed
Each night to be a grown up.
And then there’s some things that never change. Maybe it isn’t monsters under the bed that keep us awake, but there always seems to be something frightening, something that disturbs our sleep – be they in our waking lives or nightmares we dread. Worries about work or relationships affect us at any age, whether it’s hard sums and playground spats or an overdue essay and a friendship falling apart, or a dragon of a boss and an impending relationship breakdown. These things affect everyone, and maybe I’m reading too much into these lyrics, but I think they do an amazing job of showing that no matter how grown up you may think you are, there’ll always be a monster under your bed – and maybe that sounds like a bad thing, but I think it shows that in all of us there is a part that doesn’t want to grow up yet – a part that can still enjoy that perpetual optimism that when we grow up, we’ll be able to do anything, because we will be what all children, no matter whether they’re 8 or 82, see as the age when everything changes for the better – “grown up”. I think the correct term for that optimism is “hope” – and hope is never a bad thing.
the life of a moomin 