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Kinder Creativity

by Matt Herron

My neighbor has a three-year-old son named Leon. He was playing with a train set while all the stuffy grown-ups talked and drank coffee the other night. I can’t speak much German, so I watched Leon build his train track instead.

He started with the three-way split piece in the middle of the kitchen floor. Then he added one piece to the left, and another to the right, jumping between the parts so that the track grew organically. If he ran into a wall, or things didn’t connect like he wanted them to, he would adjust the pieces or move the track so that it fit better.

I was surprised because he didn’t start at the beginning, as I would have. He left his options open. If he ran into trouble, he adjusted the track to fit to his idea, instead of adjusting his idea to fit to the track. His only limit, then, was the extent of his own imagination.

Just watching him build his track (I was certain not to interfere with the little genius) taught me that things don’t have to be perfect, or proper, or even done in the right order. There are a million different ways to build something, and you are better off following your gut than anyone else’s instructions.

As a person with a strong affinity to order, I’m certain that learning to apply some of Leon’s liberal building habits to my writing would help me to improve.

Of course, things rarely turn out right on the first try. When Leon decided he didn’t like what he had built, he broke it back to pieces. No remorse or frustration, just kaput! and he started over. And he seemed to enjoy breaking the train track to pieces as much as he liked building it again.

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