By the power of greyskull

Today's blog will has been inspired by a book I just finished reading, "The Little Prince". It has also been brought to you by the letter C. I really don't fancy myself as a reader of books or anything written, which is a little ironic because I do tend to write a lot. I guess you don't need to read too much to be able to write. You know the old saying, you put a hand full of monkeys in a room full of typewriters and you will eventually get Shakespeare. Aside from that little tangent, back to the topic at hand. Seeing through the eyes of a child. I have not had a real opportunity in my life to work with children or to really interact with them, until I came here. I have been teaching many youngsters the ways of English and what not. The combination of my teaching experience and the book that I mentioned earlier has given me some insight. As I interact with these children, both in and out of the classroom, I find a general amazement in their eyes. As I walk about and talk to them I see the cogs in their minds turning. I can see the amazement and wonder that fills their minds of thoughts and fantasies.

If you have not read The Little Prince yet, I advise you to do so. It was one of those books that really makes you step outside of yourself. The basic premise of the book was that a man gets stranded in a desert. All alone he needs to fix his plane and try to survive. Along comes a child that tags along the journey of the author. This child tells the author stories of his journey to the author's home planet. These stories are of the various adults that he had met on his way to Earth. What I took away from the book was how children must see adults. After reading the book I reflected on the people that I have met and the person who I am, and found that it is mostly true. Adults or grown ups seem to only care about themselves and their own tasks. Some are consumed by it and others are blinded by the responsibility. We often think that our own little world is the biggest most important and others should not only respect it but acknowledge it. We often get consumed by the task(s) of our little world that we lose perspective. The child in the story often commented that adults were confusing. Do you remember when you were a child? Or, have you run into a child that only asks why things work the way they work? Did you respond to them, just because? That is what the basic idea of the book. This child goes from one small planet to the next asking why each adult did what they did, most of the time the answers were confusing other times there were no answers at all. A child's world is simple. Things and places exist and they are tasked to take care of them or watch them. They are not consumed with monetary things or the idea of having the most things. They simply play and enjoy the world for what it is and wonder why adults do what they do.

The more that I think about it, I see that adults feel dulled down by life. Adults are set into routines or habits they feel that they cannot break away from. In an adult world, there is no time or point of being a child. Yes, many adults have many child-like tendencies or habits, but that does not mean they are in fact children. I don't know when we lose or have lost the ability to have that wonderment in our souls, but it is hard to achieve. I often joke about my little cousins. I joke that I can spend hundreds of dollars on a toy, but they will play with the box the longest. As adults we see it just as a box, but children see a world of possibility. Somewhere in the translation of life, we lose that ability to have fun with absolutely nothing.

I do encourage you to try to get that wonderment and childlike amazement back into your lives. I don't mean acting like a child. I mean try to dig deep into yourself and find what most of us have lost over the years. I don't mean just being silly or goofy. I actually mean try to see something that isn't there. Try to look into a pile of sand or a box as a possibility of a fort or a land far far away. Try to look at something common and ask yourself what would have I done when I was a child. When was the last time you actually tried to swing on swing set and try to jump off at the peek of the swing?

I think everyone's first step should be to buy and read The Little Prince.


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The End

"One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes." - The Little Prince


-Cezar-

By the power of greyskull