Weather canceled my rafting trip again, but I visited my little cousins (and their dog) last weekend at their house out in the Alleghenny National Forest and had a great time with them. Kids are smart. They know how the world works. They might not understand it all, but deep down they know it.
And I don't mean how adults run the world, I mean how we humans are connected to the animals, the plants, and all of nature... The truths that are obvious to us until we have other ideas shoehorned into our brains. It's easy to see it in children's motivations and their activities. When kids have some free time what do they do? Waste their time watching other people compete in sports, or listening to people talk (gossip mostly) about what others are doing in the world? No. They go out to a field, or to the woods, or somewhere else in nature and explore their world and experience things for themselves... until they're taught not to. How many times were you told as a young child to stay out of the woods? or not to play in the dirt? or not to eat the dirt!? And you didn't see the tiniest thing wrong with it until it was beaten into your brain not to do it!
Kids know whats up, but as they grow up they learn to be disgusted by the natural world that we're a part of and learn all the other B.S. that becomes the troubles of the world we live in. That's why I've always tried to remember to stay a kid as much as possible. At least as far as keeping the mindset of exploration and of our connection to the natural world. It might not help me fit in with other 'adults' (I prefer being a 'grown up' personally), but at least I'm not selling my soul for a dollar or forgetting where I came from... and where I'm going.
Have a childish day.
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