My Sunday Thought for 081317: I Just Helped Him Cry

"How lucky I am to have something 

that makes saying goodbye so hard."

-- Winnie the Pooh

Updated from my post of Aug 28, 2013:

The following story was included in an email that circulates occasionally, and I always find it precious.  Young children, not jaded by the opinions and judgements of adults, can teach us much about love and life.  And, I have to ask, why not?  We are all sage souls who have experienced much through our many lives.  It makes perfect sense that, as we progress, some of us might advance to the point we remember all that has gone before.  Until then, we might only be able to retain former knowledge for an ever increasing amount of time, or we may always lose it around the age of 6 or 7 as a way of cleaning out all the baggage and making room for the new knowledge of a new life.

"There have been many cases of children from the age when they can first talk saying that they can remember another life.

They talk about another house, other parents and families and about how they died. Sometimes they become so unhappy that their parents arrange for them to go to the place where they say they lived before. In many cases they are able to identify their previous relatives. Usually the memories start to fade by the time the child is 6 or 7."

-- Victor Zammit, Evidence for the Afterlife

Anyway, I think this is where many children develop this sense of early maturity and depth of thought and emotion which seems to escape many adults.  We label many children autistic and savant as a way to excuse what we don't know about the human mind and the soul.  Perhaps these gifted few are simply caught between their past knowledge and a current world, a glitch in their programming that won't allow them to be fully in the present or explain why they know what they know.

This particular short tells of a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.  Upon seeing the man crying on his porch steps, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the elderly neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."

The innocence of a child is a wondrous thing which adults, by accident or design, seem to insist on corrupting.  We worry that our children might be taken advantage of, perhaps like we've been, or we insist they become more like us which, unfortunately, is usually not a good thing.  The ability of adults, in this day and age, to teach children to be wary and still be able to have a sense of innocence would seem to be non-existent, probably due to our own lackluster upbringing.  I suppose it is enough if we can simply teach them to do the right thing, though this would seem to have escaped us as well.  Most of us might have to follow up with what our own parents advised, "Do as I say, not as I do."  How sad is that?

"Only those who look with the eyes of children can lose themselves in the object of their wonder."

Eberhard Arnold (1883-1935), theologian, Christian writer

Maybe we should all try to make a little time, take a moment out of our busy schedules, to lend an ear, a helping hand, or to simply help someone cry, even if it's a stranger, even if it's someone strange...er.  What?  After all, who are we to judge?  The autistic child, the savant, the child prodigy, the aborted fetus, which one of them might be the savior of mankind?  Just saying.

Of course, my "just saying" comes from the whisper of a thought, My Sunday Thought, for August 13, 2017.

"It is only with the heart one can see rightly; 

what is essential is invisible to the eye."

-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author, "The Little Prince"

Editor's Note 

(re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card) 

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider another viewpoint.

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 23 years with United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with an Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects in pharmaceutical research. Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, to wage his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteers as Chaplain Program Liaison, at a regional medical center.