Climbing Out The Window.

I've recently read The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared, it's one of those books you will pick up while travelling, be it at a train station, airport or bus stop. I believe I picked my copy up at Marseilles' train station. It's easy, pleasant reading and the plot takes you on a long journey geographically and historically. The plot flips from past to present continuously, at present the main character, Alan Karlsson, is fleeing a group of criminals and the police whilst travelling with a group of friends, a dog and an elephant. Meanwhile, there are flashbacks of the century Alan has lived and influenced greatly. He dines with the likes of Stalin, President Truman and Charles de Gaulle to name a few, his flippant view towards politics lands him in many amusing situations such as fighting wars for both sides.

I loved it, I enjoy seeing history somewhat mocked and adapted. Quite frankly, sometimes fiction can improve upon fact. Anyway, I digress. The thing that really, really stood out for me was the title. The whole novel begins and ends with Alan climbing out of the window of an old folks' home and heading for freedom.

As a child, I was often fond of climbing out of the window when grounded (it's one of my childhood friends' most prominent memories of me). Why was I grounded? Painting the car, painting the shed, scribbling on walls, electrocuting my mother, pushing grandad's dog off a boat (not proud of that one, but don't boast to a child that your dog's 'the best swimmer' or it shall be tested as they know nothing about currents. The dog was saved, not to worry you all.) to name but a few bad things I've done. This was mostly before I started school. I was very good at climbing back in that window as well, there were few occasions where my parents noticed that I'd actually slipped off (and boyyy did I get it then). Point being, even at a young age I never saw the point of being somewhere you were miserable because you 'HAVE' to when there's fun to be had elsewhere.

Stories are full of princesses gazing forlornly out of windows and waiting for adventure to come to them. Even Tangled's Rapunzel waited till someone barged into her tower.

Princess and Rose Bushes from crumpetcottage.com

From an early age we are taught to wait till something happens. It's no wonder so many people end up getting stuck in a rut later in life, whether it's a course/job/relationship/place/situation we don't like. There's a number of times later in life where I 'climbed out the window', memorably when I was 18 I decided to go live in Holland as I was fed up of home (not my family or friends, just the place), people look for island escapes and I looked to escape from an island. I had a fantastic 2 months there but I got scared and it was nice to crawl back into the window (one fantastic thing about home is that they never shut you out). My second bid for freedom was uni, my 3rd going to France and now I'm about to climb out again to a new flat. My visits home are becoming fewer and further between and I think I'm ok with that. 

My tower is an island. But I can escape when I want to. :)

As for people who are happy with their tower but not the contents. Defenestration: the act of throwing something or someone out of the window. Do it!