BE YE AS LITTLE CHILDREN?

Maybe that’s why everything we ever really needed to know...we learned in kindergarten!

I find it curious how, according to the Holy Bible, that most aspired to, and all too often, elusive, state of being (heaven, paradise, transcendence, etc.) is likened to being as a child. What is it, exactly, about children that is more likely to gain them entry to heaven; while wisdom born of age, experience, intelligence and knowledge (presumably) will not? And, as adults, what do we become as we age that doesn’t seem sufficient to meet the entry requirements for heaven (according to Matthew), so much so that we must take what we’ve become and convert, turn or change it? Considering that Matthew’s direction is not change for change’s sake but, specifically, change that will have us become as little children, it begs the questions: What, then, really, is wisdom? How is it that children, with such little knowledge and experience in the world, are deemed to have that wisdom (certainly as it relates to heaven according to Matthew)? And, rather than questioning what it is we’ve become as adults, maybe the better question to ask is: as adults, what have we lost as we age?

These are the thoughts and questions that ran through my mind as I considered a New York Times book review by Simon Rodberg. In his recent review of two children’s books about Wangari Maathai (the environmental activist who spearheaded the planting of 30 million trees in 30 African countries; well-known for her work in Kenya’s Green Belt Movement and recipient of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts), Rodberg said this in his introduction:

“Children are natural environmentalists. Not yet conditioned to separate themselves from the rest of creation…they delight in all that grows…they care for anything that is given to them, apt to love too much rather than too little…they have an instinctual distaste for desolation….somewhere along the way, most of us lose this connectedness…as our field of action enlarges…we disassociate our natural affections from the natural world.”

Rodberg’s words are both inspiring yet sobering. We come into this world equipped with such an openness for and natural sense of connectedness to all life; an instinctual wisdom. But as we age, too many of us lose both as we relate to one another and the world around us. It seems the wisdom of beingness in childhood is not so much about what children know (or about what we believe children know or, better yet, the value we as adults place on what we think children know), but about what children feel and their willingness to feel their feelings, express their feelings and follow their instincts, which naturally connect them to others and the world around them. Imagine the world we would create if we were to maintain at least that part of the wisdom of childhood as we age – a world where our work, policies, laws, relationships, organizations, communities, countries, etc., reflect the ways in which we are all naturally connected?:

“What is done to one, is done to us all.” “We are only as strong as the weakest of us.” “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” “Ubuntu – a person is a person through other people; our humanity is affirmed when we acknowledge the humanity of others.” “Namaste – the divinity in me acknowledges the divinity in you.”

Imagine how different our world, and what we are experiencing today, would be if we were led by such priniples of connectedness.

But, as we age and mature (gaining what we believe is wisdom), our value of individual knowledge over the feelings and instinct that connects us all to each other and the world around us, dulls us to the natural wisdom we possessed as children. Hence we create a world where the wisdom of youth is derided not for its lack of existence, but because as adults we have lost our ability to connect to the wisdom of our youth and are, therefore, unable to recognize it in ourselves or in others and, as a result, we create a world and a set of life experiences marked, if by nothing else, our stark disconnection from one another and the world around us. Eventually, however, as the last couple of weeks have shown us in brilliant fashion, we are bound to experience something that truly reminds us of our connectedness - that we are all really in this together. And, as Jamaicans say, 'Rain don' fall pon one man house.' The reality is, neither does the sun shine on one man's house...must we wait until it rains before we're all reminded of the reality and wisdom of this connectedness?

Yet, there is hope, and, yes, it is audacious! As we experience this amazing, difficult, and wondrous season of change, (if nothing else, there is and will be plenty of change) it may prove useful for each of us to be reminded of the wisdom of our childhood. Look to your own children; the children around you, and observe the ways they engage the world. Be open to and inspired by the wisdom they may have for us and, as we embrace the change that is sure to come, let us be as little children in imagining beyond the limits of what we believe is possible and bring forth a world worthy of the instinctual hope and trust they have (wisely?) placed in us. Truly becoming as little children may be the one path we have yet to try that will make heaven, that oh so elusive state of being, not so elusive after all.

Be ye as little children. Be the wisdom you were born with. BE ILLUMINED!