Last night, it was Ingenuity Fest. While I am sad this event has moved out of downtown, and I personally believe it had more to offer when it was located in the venue-rich Euclid Avenue neighborhood, I can certainly see the appeal of its new location.
Its got a great view.
Three years ago it started as "BridgeFest", a one-time opening of the space underneath the Detroit Superior Bridge, where the trolleys used to run. Now our Ingenuity Fest call the Bridge home. It's a mysterious and "secret" space; you enter through a doorway that seems like an afterthought, up a grass-and-cobblestone rise from the old Flats, and enter a dim subterranean world... but to your right! The columns arch off toward blue sky and river below and you are suspended in this middle world, abandoned and raw and industrial and lending itself to the cause of art and music and dance for this one weekend a summer.
And there was dancing, in our family at least. The kids were crazy about the bridge, imbued as it was with a no-rules vibe. The first exhibit-- just past the beer truck-- is an all-white room wherein you are given a Sharpie and told to draw and write. On anything. Jack asked, "even on the couch???" In retrospect perhaps it was not the best idea to encourage our children's participation in this experience....
Other highlights:
Dancing and stomping and spinning on the plywood floor laid over the metal grid on the "suspension" part of the bridge, while the Drum Corps played; looking down to river and boats docked underneath our feet; the interactive light-art in the "catacomb" section by the old terminal.
(In the picture above we are waving to our images in the interactive screens on the walls. The family portrait we created is below. Don't worry, Nat is holding Ivy. In fact, one of the horizontal blobs on the screen is the image of her legs being held straight out in the air so you we could tell she was in the picture.)
Jack scored two cups of free lemonade, by the way.
Today picked up where last night left off, with the awesome-ness. Off to Lakewood bright and early where Nat went to work at The Root, I went to shop at the first Kids' Resale of the season, and the kids stayed with Gram. Two hours later, Gram and I were off together to take the kids to the Madison Park Festival, where we fed alpacas, ate random ethnic food prepared by church kitchens, listened to cheesy renditions of polka and folk favorites, got balloons, waved to Elmo, and generally had a wonderful time. Gram took Ivy to the car to nap while Jack and I had the most marvelous time on the play structures, which are sky-high and adventurous. I realized I don't get nearly enough opportunity to play with my boy on playgrounds. I mean, REALLY play. Not run after his sister while pretending to be a troll from a distance. Not supervising him while I chat with adults. Really running around, climbing, racing down the slides--playing. We had a blast. Jack is a really fun kid, you know? And so kind-- he offered to help me up ladders, to "stable me" while I balanced. Looking out for his mama.
It was a little gift, that moment of time with him.
Later in the afternoon Nat and I had a little gift of time ourselves, leaving the resting kids at Grams house again and heading out for some spontaneous garage-saleing and coffee. Delicious, to have free and unfettered time together, to just putter around, to go through shops and amble and talk and not have to shepherd anyone else.
We talked on the way home about being startled at just how little free time we do have, as parents. How plenty of our time is spent doing fun things, but we are always on duty during that fun, always on guard, protecting and watching and encouraging, structuring and creating and arranging, creating and safeguarding the fun experience for our children.
Back in our neighborhood this evening, we took Cor on a 3-blocker walk. At one point we found ourselves singing "We are the dinosaurs" at full volume, roaring and stomping and all. And I had this little epiphany that has somehow taken me 4 years to discover:
I need to change my definition of free time.
Because what could possibly be freer than walking along with a happy dog and two happy kids, unabashedly singing about dinosaurs? Not much, that's what.
Maybe that which we used to think of as free time, was really more like wasted time. All those moments spent doing...nothing at all. Unimaginable these days.
No, as parents we USE our time. We FILL our time. And if we fill it the right way, with joy and care and love and spontaneity, maybe this full time can be all the free time we need.
A side note:
Here's just a small example of the way kids make our lives great. As Jack and I opened the packaging for my new jump drive, he asked what I was going to use it for. I explained how it would help me to take information-- words, documents, pictures-- from one computer to another. I held the tiny device in front of me and marveled over how something so small could do something so amazing. That we have to take this technology for granted because if I think too much about it, its simply mind-blowing. Nat observed that its all a series of ones and zeros. And I continued to marvel that "I have no idea how it all works." Jack, sitting quietly by, watching his "How the Earth was Made" documentary, chimed in: "I know! You just take it and you put it in a slot and then you take it out!" Kid knows how to keep it real. I love him.
Oh, and FYI, I will be putting up a few pictures of Jack's first day at preschool, in the post from that day, below. Jack continues to report that he is having fun at school and most recently was proud to report that he can jump off the rock climbing wall from really really way up high and not even fall or cry. Atta boy.
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