Out of the Mouths of Babes...

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Added: Mon Mar 17th 4:35pm
Posted in: Living

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I dont' profess to be an expert in the field of religion or spirituality.  I have been a catechist for years, and have always been actively involved in my church.  That said, I still have a lot to learn.  My work over the years with children has provided some of the most caluable life lessons anyone could ask for.  In fact, my own children have taught me some things that some of the greatest spiritual leaders couldn't totally impress upon me.

Just last week, my Mom was visiting us here in Oviedo.  As we are still getting settled, she was having a conversation with my son about how he was adjusting to shcool.  She had helped us move in and was aware of how the transition was a difficult one for him.  She has an uncanny ability to get him 'talking'.

He was telling her how much things had changed since her last visit in November.  He was making numerous new friends at school and through Boy Scouts.  He was rambling on with excitement about what the Scouts had been doing at their various campouts and fundraisers, when he got that 'serious look' on his face.  He waited until I was out of earshot to have this discussion with his grandmother.  She retold it to me later, and although I know that pride is not always a great emotion, this time it was acceptable as a parent.

As he told her of his adventures, he also went on to discuss how things were changing for him at school.  He was still meeting new friends all the time, but now he had 'regulars' he sat with everyday at lunch.  He commented on how different things were here in comparison to his old school.  When my mother questioned him, he simply said that there were 'attitudes' here that he wasn't used to.  In his old school, the majority of students were all alike - same color skin, same accents; religions differed only slightly.  Here though, it was different story.

He commented on how some of the kids didn't hang out together here because they looked different or didn't have the same beliefs.  That was new to him.  He told my mother how the group he ate lunch with everyday was made up of 'all kinds of cool kids'.  A couple of his friends wre African-American, one of them had a cool accent - he was from England; and two of them were from Asia.  Another bunch of the group were from here in Florida, and one was a Canadian like him.  He said he couldn't  understand why some kids were mean to each other because he thought they were all the same, but in their own 'cool ways'.

When my mom told me this, I just smiled.  I remembered being at a company picnic a few years ago back in Nova Scotia.  Two of the children present - a sister and brother - were from a mixed marriage.  My son was only about eight years old at the time.  I overheard their conversation.  The little boy was telling my son how cool it was that he didn't think he was different.  My son asked him why.  'John' said that other kids treated him different because his skin was dark.  My son's response was something like, " what difference does that make?  If we peeled off our skin, we would look identical on the inside."  Talk about making a mom proud!  To me, these are words to live by.

Out of the mouths of babes, as the cliche goes.  Pride may not be an emotion that many consider to be a good one.  The pride I feel for my son's understanding does not fit into a 'bad' category.  In fact, it's just the opposite.  I'd like to think, as a mom, that I had something to do with his acceptance of all people and personalities.  If I didn't, that's OK too.  He's on the right track in his views of all people being equal and that is what matters most.