How do you keep your childlike response to things? How do you marvel at the brilliance of the blue of the sky after you've been taught the scientific reason for its brilliance? How do you stop yourself from jumping off the jaded bridge of reality so tainted by the lessons of our World.
It doesn't seem fair, to watch children marvel and know that their marvelous, open and utterly innocent souls will be trampled on by the hurts harbored and never forgotten by all of us.
If we do nothing in response to this travesty, if we do nothing but turn away, if we do nothing but secretly hide our regret--then, TODAY, you and I MUST Glance Over Our Shoulder-Holding our thoughts captive, we must remember our innocence, we must mourn the journey we have taken, we must move ahead to restoration, move ahead into a newfound light, move ahead until we don't have to glance over our shoulders to see the breathtaking brilliance of the sky.
I always thought childish moments were more a state of mind than anything else. I know I've told you this before -- "I'm only as mature as I have to be." I've always seen it as a kind of carefree ease with life.
ReplyDeleteAnd while I may be too far gone, I still marvel at things though I know the reason for it. Take music (because I'm listening to some right now :) -- I know that me hearing it is simply the movement of essentially a plate, which creates density variations in the air which, as they propigate outward, move my eardrums, which my brain interprets as sound. I know how the people made it, I know that the inspiration was, excepting spiritual influences which can be debated until the end of time (just caught the irony in that statement), an incredibly complex series of chemical reactions based on outside stimuli which created thought in the musicans' minds. However, that does not kill listening to music for me. I will admit that I don't often think about that while listening, but even now I still like the song I'm listening to, and I marvel at the human creativity and the interconnectedness of the world (ex. how the musicians knew what would sound good and that what sounded good to them also sounds good to me).
Which brings me to another belief -- I believe that science reaffirms the existence of God. I want to say it was Einstein who said (approx.) 'The more I looked out at the night sky, the more I knew there had to be some kind of supreme being.' To borrow a page from those arguing against Atheists, 'what are the chances?' You can look and see the thousands of ways where our world could have gone a different direction, could have catastrophically failed, and realize that there had to be the Hand of God involved. So if nothing else, I can always marvel at the incredible intricacy and complexity of this world He has wrought.
So you may be right in that we lose the specific awes we had as children, but I think we find many more. There's a saying in science, more or less 'every time we answer one question, the answer raises ten more.'
I don't have to look over my shoulder. And I think everyone has to find what it is that allows them to see the brilliance which has never left the world, only our minds.