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Image: Public Domain, Morguefile
My little nephew Seelie was here a couple weekends ago, and he did the sweetest thing.
Eric and I walked into the room to greet everyone. Seelie went over to his cookie cup, which his mom was holding, reached in and retrieved two animal crackers, then came over and presented one to each of us. “Cookie?” he said sweetly, with a smile. We took them and smiled back. It was so sweet and wonderful, it was almost enough to bring tears. When dad came into the room, he was also offered a cookie almost immediately.
Now, his mom never told him to offer his cookies. She was as pleased and surprised as us. No one said anything to him. He just did it, like it was perfectly natural and normal. For children, it really is natural until the world teaches it out of them.
He didn’t stop to wonder if he had enough cookies to share. He didn’t think that giving them away would mean less for him. He didn’t ponder whether or not we might have our own cookies, or if he liked us enough to share with us. He just did it. He likes cookies, we’d probably like cookies, he had some cookies, he gave us some. Simple as that.
Why can’t adults be like that? Don’t tell me it’s human nature, it’s not, and kids are perfect evidence of that. We learn to become selfish, greedy and judgmental. Then for whatever reason, even though deep down we know it’s wrong, we choose to stay that way. Any intelligent person can choose to be kind and giving, but they choose not to. It’s sad. We could really learn a lot from kids.
