The Truth We Think We Show

I love how children's faces
Innocently emanate truths
With purity
Immediacy
and arresting beauty

Until they discover
They need to hide these truths
And then
They reveal new truths
More complex and layered
But just as beautiful

And it reminds us
That we, in our presence, rarely exude
The truths we think we know
Or cleverly hide those we think we shouldn't
But rather
reveal the truths within us
That are often,
as of yet, beyond our grasp


March 30, 2012

I wrote this while watching a high school choir perform.  It struck me how little we realize how much power we have.  Their singing moved me in ways that are beyond their years to understand.  The words they sing are not yet grasped.  I thought of my own children's evolving innocence and self-awareness and then became aware of the elderly people in the crowd, who if they looked at me, at middle aged teacher, probably, in some sense would think the same thing.  What was I not seeing, yet?  What was I showing that I didn't yet know?