Perspective

This is another posting on children after my last one entitled Are They Not Innocent?

Most children are pretty simple in many ways. I enjoy spending time with children. I like them. They like me. If they don’t like me, they won’t be with me. If they feel good with me, they want more time with me. If they don’t want to be with me, they have no qualms about conveying it to me. Simple. No guilt about their decision to be away from me.

Children go on feelings. Their feelings are not actioned through a set of complex mental judgments - unlike how it is with adults. Relationships are a simple matter for young kids. Life would have been much better if adults thought similarly.

I want to share three simple stories here. I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I am sharing it with you now:

Thanks to my friend who shared these pictures. She is one good photographer.

Bread Seller:
My friend narrated this incident when her son was so captivated watching children selling a type of bread called ‘Kaak’ in the streets of Istanbul. He got so fascinated at that new scene that unfolded before him that he refused to continue to walk alongside her, and instead insisted on watching them. So, thankfully to his delight, she stopped and let her kid enjoy the street kid vendors. At one point, he turned to her and said, "Mama, buy for me ‘Kaak’ to sell."

Bread Seller. Chose his occupation at that young age then and there, and without any guidance. Who insists we need a counsellor to sort out our thoughts?

My nephew, Keith, in Kuwaiti traditional clothes

Round and Round:

There is this incidence when a 4 year old in my family was one of my constant companions. I have often played many self-invented games with him. One of the games we used to get amused about and enjoy playing was twirling him around. He used to call it the game of playing ‘round and round.’ It was merely a game of the kind when I used to hold him firmly clasping my palms tight under his little arms, thumbs securely in place right over, and then spin him around as fast as I could in roughly circular movements. Each time he wanted to play that, he used to say, "Please turn me ‘round and round’." One particular day, I felt I did play with him for quite a while, began to feel dizzy myself and so told him, "That’s enough. If I turn you ‘round and round’ anymore, you would feel dizzy." Instantly, he responded, "Then please turn me square and square."

Mathematical genius. Euclid reborn.

Keith with his Carmel School shirt

Yellow Teeth:
Then there was this time when the same little guy was busy coloring a picture of a crocodile. As I passed by him, I noticed he was passionately filling up the outlines of the crocodile teeth with yellow colour. I stopped over to ask him, “But why yellow?” Pat came the reply, “Because the crocodile doesn't brush its teeth.”

Promoter of hygiene practice in the animal kingdom. Steve Erwin, Jr.

Children can be sensitive and wise in their own little way. Maybe they have more to teach us than we sometimes give them credit for. Children have such different perspectives.