Illustration by Zach Hackman
My daughters may be the freest humans in the world. Their ability to imagine the wildest possible scenarios in their play—dragons and monsters, lava, conjured-up magic castles and warlords, as they bend and contort their limbs to heights and distances my tender 43-year-old self can only accomplish under the most strenuous stretching, all for the sake of the “fun”—is astounding. Their ability to drown out the noise, while also embodying another type of, largely more productive, noise is what I am most in awe of. While they are still Nintendo Switch players, Stray Kids video watchers, and iPad game havers at times, they have a childlike curiosity beyond technology.