02 July 2012

If I could see the world through the eyes of a child...

I have this friend, Mr. B, who I've written about before for the Band; he always finds new ways to make me stop and think.

A few nights ago, I was on the phone with Mr. B and all of a sudden, he gets all excited and tells me "I'm not hanging up on you, I gotta stop and take a picture and send it to you". What arrived via MMS was a picture of chicken feet wrapped in a plastic/foam meat tray.

Now, this doesn't seem to be the kind of thing that would make one stop and have life-changing philosophical thoughts; and yet, it was.

It made me stop and think about other, similar things Mr. B has done. He is always so open, so curious. He approaches life like every moment is a new adventure. His spirit is much like that of a child, when you think about it. Children are always excited about the smallest things, and so happy to experience them.

Funny how, when I am stewing in thoughts like this, I get to my meeting and hear somebody sharing about his day and hear something so fucking similar.

This man was sharing about how the weedeater wouldn't work right, it was hot, he cut his thumb, and the day was just such a struggle. As he is struggling with his day, his dog decides she wants to go sit in the truck with the air-conditioner running; he obliges her. Once inside the truck, the dog sits there and watches him out the window, looking at him like he is stupid. He realized that the dog was right. Here his dog is, sitting in the air-conditioning instead of roasting in the steamy southern heat. He realized that the dog is smarter than he is.

He got to thinking about how, if you asked the dog "what time is it?", the dog's answer would be "now. It's now." As he thought about this, he also realized that the dog requires so much less to be content than we humans do. The dog has something to eat, water to drink, a comfy and safe place to sleep, and humans to pat its head when it wants a pat on the head.

This reasoning has me thinking more about Mr. B and about that dog. What if everybody looked at the world more like they do?

If I could see the word through the eyes of a child, what a wonderful world this would be.

4 comments:

  1. It would be so much better. It would look so much better. This is part of the reason I'd like to be more free-spirited and carefree. Speaking of which, I'm off work Wednesday through the weekend. I'll text you, BUT you should totally let me know if you have some time. I'd love to drive out and see you. I also have friends in Nacogdoches I'm going to hit up, methinks. I LOVE YOU!

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    1. Shit, I just remembered you had time off. It would have been totally awesome to have you here with us today!

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  2. Oh to see the world through the eyes of the innocent. We see a red dress with ornate detail. They see pretty. We see everything we have learned from life, good and bad, and they see all that they can imagine. When I hear children scream and giggle and get loud, instead of getting upset about their loudness I try to discover what caused it. Because it's often something so simple that means so much to them. And I long for that.

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    1. I long to laugh like a child. Children laugh from pure joy, not from cynicism or bitterness or to meet expectations.

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