Benched With Age

So I’m driving home from what was possibly the sweetest babysitting job that I’ve ever encountered. As the mile markers blur out my car window, I recount the events of the night, feeling truly blessed by it’s perfection. There’s something about looking after a truly sweet child, and those precious moments where I get to see the world through his clear eyes that makes me nostalgic and eventually critical. To speak of my experience of looking through a child’s eyes is undoubtedly a cliché, but it does not detract from the beauty of the experience.

Toddlers expect the world to be full of the things they want, and yet somehow those things are desired so unselfishly. Children have more faith than demand for what life has to offer them. They uninhibitedly laugh at what strikes them funny, and cry at times when they feel sorrow. A child seeks the happiness of everyone around them, and has no reason to believe that happiness is not perfectly attainable.

How do we forget this purity and plainness as we age? Why do some people find it simple-minded to take joy in the little things in life? Why do we feel the need to feign a composed exterior when we’re actually feeling true sorrow? A child expects to be consoled when they’re feeling sad, but as we age, suddenly sadness is considered weakness. Heaven forbid that someone should comfort or console us when we’re upset! Granted, some things in life are too trivial to merit profuse dwelling, however sometimes I wish that we could offer each other genuine confidence. I want people to feel comfortable enough to confide in each other. I think that we just don’t trust each other enough in our interpersonal relationships to dispel that much of ourselves to each other.

Whatever the case, I admire the purity and unwavering faith of little kids and wish that we, as adults, would wear a little less of the facades that we feign. It’s okay to be there for people, and to not have to worry about keeping up appearances. People shouldn’t have to worry that someone may judge them for asking if someone else is okay. It’s okay to laugh, and it’s okay to be upset sometimes. No one will think of you any less, and those who would need to get over themselves.