"Children Are The Bridge To Heaven" - Persian Proverb

When we were young, most of what we did was by impulse, showing our true nature, for we knew not what was expected or polite. As we aged, we sat through lectures, experienced mistakes, and grew. We learned what was acceptable in certain societies and how to chameleon-ize ourselves in dissimilar circumstances.

We now act differently with people who we know can play a large part in our lives than with those who seem to be of little importance when pertaining to our future; we truckle to those in high positions and talk behind people’s backs. We have assimilated ourselves into a culture that smiles upon self-preservation as a rule.

Perhaps that is why I love children so much. Children lie when scared or as a means to innocently embellish. They say what is on their mind, and rarely regret or realize instances in which they could have offended someone. When a compliment or admonish is received from a child, one cannot but know that truth is in every word. I will admit to the fact that I have worked with children who at age 4 already knew how to suck up, but for the most part, children are truthful. Their facial emotions are blatant, their cries of delight honest.

When I am with children, I have a freedom I experience with very few people. The mask of expectations strips away and I can pretend to be a plane, play hide-and-seek, tell ridiculous stories, and sing loudly and in such a manner that my voice teacher would be appalled. I can growl like a bear, snort like a pig, and hop like a rabbit with its tail on fire. I can laugh loudly and joyously, make faces that guarantee the need for Botox in ten years, and abandon my feelings of insecurity. Freedom. Sweet, delicious freedom.

I concede that there is a necessity in life for properness, and delicacy towards the feelings and standards of others. But children are the lifeboats in society, whose refreshingly blunt comments save us from drowning in our own people-pleasing lies.

Thank God for children.

"Bitter are the tears of a child: Sweeten them.
Deep are the thoughts of a child: Quiet them.
Sharp is the grief of a child: Take it from him.
Soft is the heart of a child: Do not harden it."
- Pamela Glenconner