Innocence

We start teaching children early that they can do bad things, that they can fail, and that when they fail they have to fix it, make it better. What is left of life when we live with these ideas? Telling a child to wake up is natural, and appropriate, directing their attention to what they should notice and pay attention to is useful, but after a time adults grow strong in whatever way they were raised. The thing is, like a tree, that strength can turn into something other than an asset.

What is difficult is that innocence is hard to think about, because you actually can’t think about it. It’s what happens in those brief moments when you aren’t caught up in your own thinking, like meditation, or going for a casual stroll.

“The silence often of pure innocence persuades when speaking fails.” William Shakespeare

“Innocence dwells with wisdom, but never with ignorance” William Blake