Wisdom From A Little One
“Do you ever wonder?”
The little boy said
Pointing up at the sky
With his chubby pointer finger
“Why we are here?
What we are for?
How come we are kings
Of this earth
That maybe would be better off
without us.”
I swung my head to the side
Eye to eye we stared
I asked slowly
(In a state of shock)
Why he, so young
Would be thinking these things
The little boy shrugged
Calm blue eyes reflecting
The wonders of exploding gas in the sky
And replied
He had heard the news about
The big scary bugaboo
That politicians fought over
That his Mommy and Daddy worried about
That his school had to turn the lights off for
That horrible thing endangering his future
The mean and nasty Global Warming
And had a thought
That maybe humans aren’t that great
And were a complete accident in creation
I sighed and thought
How to explain to one so young?
That not everything can be answered
And the elders do not know all
Even though
They pretend out of pride
“Well,” I started carefully
Not ignorant of that
Pleading look in his eyes
Looking for reassurance
But not always the truth
Should I tell him my theories?
My thoughts?
My hopes?
My secret beliefs?
I could
But then, would I become a preacher?
No one should be forced to believe
In something they don’t want to
That has always been my belief
And no hypocrite
Am I
“Well,” I said again
The little boy frowned
I shrugged in empathy
“The thing is…
I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“No, my little friend
For you see
No one knows why we are here
Or indeed if we were a big accident
But, people have things they believe in
I have some of my own
But I think
You are smart enough
To find what you believe in.”
“Does that mean…”
He started to ask
Uncertaintly
“There is no God? No Heaven? No nothing?”
I paused again
Faced with another difficult question
“That is another thing I don’t know for sure
But
And this is just me speaking
I like to think that nothing this beautiful
And terrible
Could ever be an accident
I like to think also that death is just
An extension
Of life
Not an end
But a continuation
Of a never-ending story
Of course
I could be wrong
I could be- but it doesn’t scare me
If I live my life
To the best I can
Be there Heaven or not
At least I can leave
Knowing I was happy.”
The little boy didn’t say anything
He just lay on his back
Still gazing into the stars
“You know,” he said quietly
After awhile
“The universe never ends-
Or at least, that’s what my teacher said
Maybe somewhere
Somewhere in the universe…”
He didn’t continue
His young mind
Struggling with new uncertainty
I lifted my arm
And hugged him close
“ I know what you mean,” I replied gently
“And I think, you are very wise
For someone so young.”
The little boy said
Pointing up at the sky
With his chubby pointer finger
“Why we are here?
What we are for?
How come we are kings
Of this earth
That maybe would be better off
without us.”
I swung my head to the side
Eye to eye we stared
I asked slowly
(In a state of shock)
Why he, so young
Would be thinking these things
The little boy shrugged
Calm blue eyes reflecting
The wonders of exploding gas in the sky
And replied
He had heard the news about
The big scary bugaboo
That politicians fought over
That his Mommy and Daddy worried about
That his school had to turn the lights off for
That horrible thing endangering his future
The mean and nasty Global Warming
And had a thought
That maybe humans aren’t that great
And were a complete accident in creation
I sighed and thought
How to explain to one so young?
That not everything can be answered
And the elders do not know all
Even though
They pretend out of pride
“Well,” I started carefully
Not ignorant of that
Pleading look in his eyes
Looking for reassurance
But not always the truth
Should I tell him my theories?
My thoughts?
My hopes?
My secret beliefs?
I could
But then, would I become a preacher?
No one should be forced to believe
In something they don’t want to
That has always been my belief
And no hypocrite
Am I
“Well,” I said again
The little boy frowned
I shrugged in empathy
“The thing is…
I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“No, my little friend
For you see
No one knows why we are here
Or indeed if we were a big accident
But, people have things they believe in
I have some of my own
But I think
You are smart enough
To find what you believe in.”
“Does that mean…”
He started to ask
Uncertaintly
“There is no God? No Heaven? No nothing?”
I paused again
Faced with another difficult question
“That is another thing I don’t know for sure
But
And this is just me speaking
I like to think that nothing this beautiful
And terrible
Could ever be an accident
I like to think also that death is just
An extension
Of life
Not an end
But a continuation
Of a never-ending story
Of course
I could be wrong
I could be- but it doesn’t scare me
If I live my life
To the best I can
Be there Heaven or not
At least I can leave
Knowing I was happy.”
The little boy didn’t say anything
He just lay on his back
Still gazing into the stars
“You know,” he said quietly
After awhile
“The universe never ends-
Or at least, that’s what my teacher said
Maybe somewhere
Somewhere in the universe…”
He didn’t continue
His young mind
Struggling with new uncertainty
I lifted my arm
And hugged him close
“ I know what you mean,” I replied gently
“And I think, you are very wise
For someone so young.”