As we age, childhood seems simple to us.
Not because there were no rules or no pressures, no tests or no fears then. Because, looking back, as a child, i have had enough things to worry about and to cry over - grades to exams, sickness and hospital visits, dust, smoke and the myriad allergies, parents and their rules, many questions and the few answers....
They seem small right now but they were pretty big concerns to me then.
But despite all this to almost everyone, childhood was simple. Simple... because we were simple people. Our minds, thoughts and words were simple. Words meant just what they said. As did people. There were no double or hidden meanings. Lines were lines and there was nothing between them. Friends were friends and foes were foes. Things were either good or bad. Everyone could be a best friend ! :) We had favorite colors, fruits, foods, animals, flowers - pretty much anything and everything.
And then we grow up and somehow things become more complicated. Tears are a sign of weakness. We hate to not be independent. Nothing is as clear as black and white. The shades of grey fill our world. People too are not just good or bad. We learn to read between the lines and to find other meanings. Nothing is an absolute : favorite, best-friend or biggest-foe; the world is fuzzy and we are confused. But despite all this confusion, we have to pretend to see clarity, to see meaning. Our minds in fact are so convoluted with thinking and rethinking, with dissecting and tearing apart every thought; that eventually, we loose our innocence and our simplicity.
The following is the text from a forward i received a few days ago. A simple forward that I thoroughly enjoyed and duly forwarded.
While I laughed at the simple thoughts expressed by the children here, i realized that as adults, we are so far removed from that innocence, that we actually find it amusing. Our convoluted minds, trained by years of social training, actually find simplicity amusing and laughable. It's sad but its also true and perhaps even necessary !
But the innocence is truly endearing. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.
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Not because there were no rules or no pressures, no tests or no fears then. Because, looking back, as a child, i have had enough things to worry about and to cry over - grades to exams, sickness and hospital visits, dust, smoke and the myriad allergies, parents and their rules, many questions and the few answers....
They seem small right now but they were pretty big concerns to me then.
But despite all this to almost everyone, childhood was simple. Simple... because we were simple people. Our minds, thoughts and words were simple. Words meant just what they said. As did people. There were no double or hidden meanings. Lines were lines and there was nothing between them. Friends were friends and foes were foes. Things were either good or bad. Everyone could be a best friend ! :) We had favorite colors, fruits, foods, animals, flowers - pretty much anything and everything.
And then we grow up and somehow things become more complicated. Tears are a sign of weakness. We hate to not be independent. Nothing is as clear as black and white. The shades of grey fill our world. People too are not just good or bad. We learn to read between the lines and to find other meanings. Nothing is an absolute : favorite, best-friend or biggest-foe; the world is fuzzy and we are confused. But despite all this confusion, we have to pretend to see clarity, to see meaning. Our minds in fact are so convoluted with thinking and rethinking, with dissecting and tearing apart every thought; that eventually, we loose our innocence and our simplicity.
The following is the text from a forward i received a few days ago. A simple forward that I thoroughly enjoyed and duly forwarded.
While I laughed at the simple thoughts expressed by the children here, i realized that as adults, we are so far removed from that innocence, that we actually find it amusing. Our convoluted minds, trained by years of social training, actually find simplicity amusing and laughable. It's sad but its also true and perhaps even necessary !
But the innocence is truly endearing. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.
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While taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was
interrupted by a little girl about 6 years old. Looking up and down at
my uniform, she asked, 'Are you a cop? Yes,' I answered and continued
writing the report. My mother said if I ever needed help I should ask
the police. Is that right?' 'Yes, that's right,' I told her. 'Well,
then,' she said as she extended her foot toward me, 'would you please
tie my shoe?'
While working for an organization that delivers lunches to elderly shut-ins, I used to take my 4-year-old daughter on my afternoon rounds. She was unfailingly intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers and wheelchairs. One day I found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass. As I braced myself for the inevitable barrage of questions, she merely turned and whispered, 'The tooth fairy will never believe this!'
A little girl was watching her parents dress for a party. When she saw her dad donning his tuxedo, she warned, 'Daddy, you shouldn't wear that suit. 'And why not, darling?' 'You know that it always gives you a headache the next morning.'
While working for an organization that delivers lunches to elderly shut-ins, I used to take my 4-year-old daughter on my afternoon rounds. She was unfailingly intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers and wheelchairs. One day I found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass. As I braced myself for the inevitable barrage of questions, she merely turned and whispered, 'The tooth fairy will never believe this!'
A little girl was watching her parents dress for a party. When she saw her dad donning his tuxedo, she warned, 'Daddy, you shouldn't wear that suit. 'And why not, darling?' 'You know that it always gives you a headache the next morning.'
A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup out of the jar. During her
struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer
the phone.. 'Mommy can't come to the phone to talk to you right now
She's hitting the bottle.
On the first day of school, a first-grader handed his teacher a note from
his mother. The note read, 'The opinions expressed by this child are not
necessarily those of his parents ..'
While walking along the sidewalk in front of his church, our minister heard
the intoning of a prayer that nearly made his collar wilt. Apparently,
his 5-year-old son and his playmates had found a dead robin. Feeling
that proper burial should be performed, they had secured a small box and
cotton batting, then dug a hole and made ready for the disposal of the
deceased. The minister's son was chosen to say the appropriate prayers and with
sonorous dignity intoned his version of what he thought his father
always said: 'Glory be unto the Father, and unto the Son, and into the
hole he goes.
A little girl had just finished her first week of school. 'I'm just
wasting my time,' she said to her mother. 'I can't read, I can't write,
and they won't let me talk!'
A little boy opened the big family Bible. He was fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible. He
picked up the object and looked at it. What he saw was an old leaf that
had been pressed in between the pages. With astonishment in the young boy's voice, he answered, 'I think it's Adam's underwear!'
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