Kids
They’re still my kids, always will be, even though they are all grown. Would love to say I remember everything that went on however I, unfortunately, do not. There were definitely moments indelibly etched in my conscious mind, undoubtedly many more embedded in my subconscious.
People-watching, an endless source of data, is something I enjoy. These days I even think about where they are from, how many siblings, why are they here? Not something I’d done in the past. Kids are the best to observe. How cool it must be to discover something new every few hours, endless aha moments? I’m working on it, will never know all, could be at it ad infinitum.
What they are learning is from those around them, parents, siblings, pets, everything they can lay their tiny paws on, and shove in their mouths. Yet there is much more in there, stuff they have brought with them to this life, genetic material replete with its own hard drive, data those preceding them accumulated, have had the good sense to pass along.
As we grow the noise around us increases, coming from every angle. Things buzz around, rendering us less adept at ‘hearing’ what needs to be heard. Everything vying for our attention. Imagine for a minute you had to pay attention to everything you did, every second of the day. You can’t function without a step-by-step process, wash your hands, eat. We do all this ‘without thinking’. Animals follow paths that their ancestors took, they somehow know where to go, intuitive.
This is what I’m referring to, our innate abilities passed down from generation to generation. While we may not physically be making another appearance on this planet, we can maybe say we are returning in some form, at least some of our habits might be. Yes, please let them be the good ones.
I had the distinct pleasure of spending some time with kids in a rural area of the Cape, South Africa. Their innocence is palpable, their smiles heart-wrenching. While not quite summer, damn it can get cold there, I melted. I’m going back, lucky that I am able.
The other evening, while enjoying a Rosh Hashanah dinner with our ever-so-expanding family, I witnessed something that reminded me of things I’ve lost touch with. There is a cat living here that has been given a crappy break. It seems to have some neurological issue and has difficulty moving, motor skills inaccessible.
The youngest of the children, visiting with her clan, is adorable, quite the queen, in charge of her space. She’s a cat lover, likely just an animal lover overall. She saw the cat, and got excited as she hopped down to go say hi then, abruptly, stopped!
The smile evaporated, replaced with cries of ‘mummy, mummy’ as she sought refuge. An odd occurrence, nothing too alarming given her mom’s assurance that she indeed liked cats, played with one earlier that day.
There were many other kids around playing as kids do. The other new addition is intent on gaining adult attention with smiles, giggles, and coy ploys. She lives with the cat, and doesn’t seem to be moved one way or the other.
Then a second time. Whether she’d forgotten the episode or just wanted to give it another go, I can’t say, the result, however, is unchanged. On this occasion, I started getting a strange sensation. I looked at my sister-in-law ‘I think she can tell there is something wrong’ I said, to which she, somewhat agape, nodded her agreement.
Unrelated, a very young boy, getting to look at the exotic birds here on my brother’s bird farm, is shown a snake. He’s enrapt, and can’t be calmed once he learns the snake was killed because it had gotten into the chicken coop, killing two of them. ‘But why’s it dead?’ he continues to whimper to his dad.
It’s wonderful that they are making some great inroads to a better understanding of how we work, who we are, and where we come from. We are the most fascinating of creatures, can do amazing things, yet allow ourselves to be held back by succumbing to the basest of our instincts, instincts we should long ago have outgrown. Do we need, to the extent our ancestors did, the fight or flight instinct? The mob and many other detrimental behaviors are still inherent.
One more time and we are convinced, she was reacting to whatever she was sensing when approaching the cat. How much can kids feel? If they can, I believe we are missing out by not tuning in. I recall having feelings like this when young, sensing things.
Nothing major, just having some sort of inner sense about what was to come, what was around me. I have been noticing that, with a concerted effort, (somewhat counterintuitive I’ll admit), I’m regaining some connection with my innate library of data, entrenched, buried below layers of noise. Mine, I sense, longing to be free.
