Childhood Innocence

              The boy and girl became fast friends within an hour after they first met.  The boy lives in London, England, and was five years old last March.  The girl lives in Dardanelle, Arkansas, and was five years old last June.  Their grandmothers are sisters; their mothers are first cousins. I think that makes them second cousins.  I am their great-grandmother.

These two met last July when my family gathered at a big house on a lake in Wisconsin for a reunion and to honor my birthday.  Since I live in Chesterfield, Indiana, I have not had the opportunity to see these two very often.  So my joy was just to sit and watch them as they became engrossed in play.

On the second morning of our gathering, these two, talking all the time, were having a wonderful time moving cars around on a toy city on the floor of the huge porch in the front of the house.  All of a sudden, the boy said, “Let’s go swimming.  Our bathing suits are right up there,” pointing to a towel rack that held their swimsuits drying from the preceding day’s swim.

“OK,” said the girl.  She went to the towel rack, pulled off their suits, gave the boy his suit, and began taking off all her clothes.  She stepped into her one-piece suit, adjusted the straps, and waited patiently while the boy pulled off his shirt, pushed down his pants, and tugged on his bathing suit. Then they were out the porch door and gone.

What had I just seen? The answer?   The beauty and joy of childhood innocence.  There was no touching, no curiosity, no shame, just two friends who decided to swim and had to change clothes to do so. In a world so saturated with sexual innuendoes, human trafficking, and blatant hints of nudity, it was a real joy to watch these two completely and innocently undress and dress again without any other thought but to go swimming together.  Would to God, we knew more people practicing this unsullied kind of attitude.             

Now, don’t misunderstand me.  I am not advocating that we should begin undressing in public.  I am suggesting that taking on the characteristics of children like I saw last July warms our hearts with the beauty of a loving relationship, the joy of acceptance, and the gift of having a good friend with whom to share our lives. I believe we would all be a lot happier and content if, in some ways, we became children again.