I heard this beautiful expression during a talk given by Rachel Bagby at Charlottesville’s first TEDx event last week. Her credentials are a mile long, and I could tell you that she graduated from Stanford Law School or sang with Bobby McFerrin, but my favorite item on her resume is choral activist.
As did many of the words from the incredible speakers that day, hers got me thinking; and I found a tiny thread of connection: becoming more child-like is actually a good thing. I heard Zoe Romano, who RAN the Tour de France course this summer, insist that discovery for the sake of discovery makes us children again. I heard that “creative imagination is the juice of business.” I heard that “weirdness is a resource.” I heard that “theater is where my story meets your story and becomes our story.” I heard that the stories we tell ourselves as adults, however, can cause pain and suffering. I heard that by holding someone’s hand, we reduce stress and “outsource neural pathways.” I love that! This simple act communicates, “I am here with you, we are here together.”
I also heard that “sanitation is more important than freedom,” but I’ll expand on that another time. (maybe)
The insights above were from live speakers. There were also several videos shown from the Ted Talk archives including one featuring child prodigy, Adora Svitak. She convincingly argues that children have inherent wisdom, good ideas and the audacity to imagine. She reminds us that children dream and dream big, without being hampered by our limiting beliefs. Although she did not quote Emily Dickinson, I will. Children dwell in possibility.
I have since reflected upon children and their being the “greatest in the kingdom of Heaven” as Jesus tells his disciples in the gospel of Matthew. They are, according to Frederick Buechner, “people who…live with their hands open more than with their fists clenched. They are people who…are so relatively unburdened by preconceptions that if somebody says there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, they are perfectly willing to go take a look for themselves.” They see truth and little ones, in particular, live life full bore. As if every day could be their last. Unconsciously and instinctively. They are insatiably curious; they love stories; they hold our hands. And a known, loved child can be fearless.
Ironically yet perhaps not so ironically, the last time I expressed that I wanted to be like someone, it was someone who was “never scared to love anybody”
. . . and who just happened to be 6 years old.
– Caroline Watkins
