"Getting over a painful experience is much like…

“Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward” has been cited in print since at least 1999 and is of unknown authorship. The quotation has frequently been credited (since 2009) to novelist and poet C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), but there is no evidence that he wrote this during his lifetime.

Wikipedia: Jungle Gym
The jungle gym, also called monkey bars or climbing frame, is a piece of playground equipment made of many pieces of material, such as metal pipe or rope, on which participants can climb, hang, sit, and in some configurations slide.

History
The first jungle gym was invented in 1920 and patented by lawyer Sebastian Hinton, in Chicago. It was sold under the trademarked name Junglegym. The term “monkey bars” appears at least as far back as the 1930s, though Hinton’s initial patent of 1920 appeals to the “monkey instinct” in claiming the benefits of climbing as exercise and play for children, and his improvement patents later that year refer to monkeys shaking the bars of a cage, children swinging on a “monkey runway”, and the game of “monkey tag”.

Google Groups: alt.support.depression.manic
Sound and Fury
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
11/6/99
(...)
I hope this doesn’t sound trite. but here is a little saying that has helped me a lot.
Getting over a painful experience is a little like crossing the monkey bars; at some point, you have to let go if you want to move forward.

Google Groups: alt.quotations
Getting over him
Stephen Ingerson
7/26/00
(...)
Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.
unknown

Google Groups: talk.religion.course-miracle
Playground Philosophy
gig
2/20/07
“Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.”
~ Anonymous

Google Books
Murder Had a Little Lamb:
A Reigning Cats & Dogs Mystery
By Cynthia Baxter
New York, NY: Bantam Books
2009
Pg. 304:
“Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.” — C. S. Lewis

Twitter
Christa Foley
‏@electra
Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.- Unknown.
8:25 PM - 15 Aug 2009

Google Books
Refeathering the Empty Nest:
Life After the Children Leave
By Wendy Aronsson
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield
2014
Pg. 17:
Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward. —C. S. Lewis, novelist and poet

Twitter
Andoy Castellano
‏@andoyc
Photo: quotesfield: “Getting over a painful experience is much…” -C. S. Lewis http://tmblr.co/Zr_94x1QK2LhY
9:34 AM - 8 Sep 2014

“Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars—let go to move forward”