►
with their arms spread out and they’re airplanes or birds, and they feel the wind. They don’t just look at the lilacs. They smell them, and then taste the leaves, and take a flower apart to see how it’s made, and crawl through the bushes to find out what they’re like under neath. They climb up a tree to sway on the branches and find out how rough the bark is and if there are birds’ nests. Children don’t just stand there looking at nature. They smell it and feel it and taste it and see how it looks from underneath and all around. People are pretty dull. They aren’t really interested in much. Children are interested in everything — in telephones and God and bugs and stars and baseball and steam shovels and anything you can think of. They are bursting with curiosity and bubbling with questions. People are always stewing about what other people w ill think. They do not do much of what they want to do. They get all dressed up when they go out so other people won’t think they’re sloppy or don’t know any better, even if they’re comfortable in their shorts and old ten nis shoes. They even go into debt so other people won’t find out that they don’t have as much money as they want them to think they have! Children don’t give a hoot about what others think. When people say, “What will Mr. Brown think of a big boy like you acting this way?” or “What will the neigh bors think of a big girl like you getting so muddy?” Children tell them, “ I don’t care.” They never dress up unless they’re made to. Children will even tell you ex actly how much money they have. They don’t care if you know. Even if they don’t have one single cent. People are always waiting until things are over. That way they spend a lot of time being bored, which shows up in their dispositions. Say they’re riding along on a bus; they’re just waiting until they get somewhere. If they’re at the garage while the car is being fixed, they’re just waiting until they can be on their way again. The minute they catch up to what they’re waiting for, they start waiting for the next thing. Children, on the other hand, enjoy things while they’re going on. They have a good time counting tele phone poles along the highway, watching the mechanic work on the motor, or skipping cracks in the sidewalk. That way they’re happy as they go along and not all the time waiting to be happy. Besides, people think for a thing to be good it has to cost money. Children know you can get lots of things for nothing. They can take vases and old inner tubes and bottles and a broken phonograph and an empty candy box out of trash cans in the alley. They can pick up rocks with sparkles like diamonds in them and feathers and a big packing box for a fort without spending one single cent! I could go on with all the reasons why I like children better than people, but it would take about a million years. What I’d rather do is have somebody explain this to me: when people say to other people, “You’re so Childish!” why do they say it in a derogatory tone? I think it’s just about the nicest compliment there is. E ditor ’ s N ote : And children’s hearts open like flowers to Christ and His truth when we present it in love. The time to win them is when they are so impressionable and so affectionate. The Lord bade us “ Feed M y lambs” so let us older Christians not neglect them. Reprinted by permission from TOGETHER (September 1961) Copyright 1961 by I.nvick Piene. Publisher.
C h il d r e n have had a lot of bad publicity lately, out right slander, really. Between Jean Kerr’s daisy- eaters and Elinor Goulding Smith’s housemates, some body who doesn’t know Children personally might think they were monsters. I, for one, like Children better them People. I really do, and I can give you a hundred good reasons why. For one thing, People are wet blankets. If some body says, “ Let’s do this” or “ Let’s do that,” People first think of all the reasons why they can’t. They’re too tired, or it’s too close to dinnertime, or they have to take the screens down. If they finally do it, after all that, they keep thinking about all those things and they don’t have any fun. Children, on the other hand, are enthusiastic. They’re always ready to do practically anything, whether it’s going to look at new puppies, or swing in the back yard, or shoot fireworks, or make popcorn. They’re never too tired. Children first think of all the reasons why they should do things. They like to play marbles, fly model airplanes, kick tin cans, dig for fishing worms, play cowboys and turn somersaults. Another thing. People are phony. You can’t believe a word they say. They pretend to like other people while they’re with them, and right after, they’ll say they don’t like them at all. If they get mad, they don’t come right out and say so; instead they get ulcers, or drive too fast, or make sarcastic remarks, or hold a grudge forever and ever. They even hide it when they feel happy. Children, however, are candid. They don’t pretend about what they like and don’t like. If you say, “Would you like to have a peanut-butter sandwich?” or “Would you like to stay here with me?” or “Would you like to play outdoors?” they’ll tell you. Children don’t pretend to like you if they really don’t; they act the way they feel. If they get mad, they simply throw a tantrum, which blows over fast and then it’s all finished and done with. They forgive and forget in just about two minutes flat. If they’re happy, they really show it: they dance and skip and laugh, and everybody around feels happy, too. People sleep too much. They take naps, even when nobody can make them. But children hate sleep. They love being awake because they love life so much. That’s why they put up such a fight about going to bed. And they have no trouble bouncing out in the morning. Children are glad when morning comes <— like birds, they’re gay as soon as they wake up. They never need coffee first. People aren’t very friendly, either. You don’t see them going around making friends in the supermarket, or on the bus, or while they’re in a park. Even if they’re in troduced they’re afraid to ask about things they want to know. You don’t hear people ask, “ How old are you?” or “ Do you want to be my friend?” or things like that. But children are very friendly. They don’t care about anybody’s race, creed, or color. They like the TV repair man and the nurse in the doctor’s office and the old man who feeds pigeons and the baby next door and the cleaning woman and practically everybody. People don’t really appreciate nature. All they know how to do is look at nature or take pictures of it and then look at them. They say, “ Isn’t this a lovely hill?” or “What a nice tree!” or “My, the lilacs are beautiful.” Children really appreciate nature. They roll like logs down the grassy slope, bumping along and giggling at the way the weeds tickle. Then they run down it
If
1
»
»
4
27
MARCH, 1964
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker