Children.
Possibly the most beautiful creatures to walk the earth.
Bright eyes, porcelain skin, contagious giggles.
Tiny fingers, chubby cheeks, never ending curiosity.
A blank slate to the ever so complicated world.
A brand new page in the notebook of life.
A new pair of shoes hitting the pavement for the first time.
Each one individual, like opening a brand new book that you have never read.
Like a sponge, they soak up every bit of information, question it, and contemplate what it means.
That’s more than some of us adults do. We just play follow the leader and take orders from superiors for fear of acting out of line.
But children do not worry about these things because they do not know where this line is or what it means to step outside of it.
Until we teach them where the line is.
But why must we teach them to always stay within the boundaries? Inside the fence. Locked into the collar and leash that is the regulations of society.
Let us teach the ever so curious offspring to unhook the leash, take off the collar and dance on the line, get off the line and get back on it again.
Let us teach our children that the line is not, and never will be life, knowledge or education.
Life comes from within your soul, knowledge and education come from questions, experience and curiosity.
And let’s teach our children to never lose their spark of innocence, trust, and glowing white light of purity from within.
And when our children run to us with an empty glass in hand, with the bitter taste of betrayal and dishonesty on their tongues and in their system,
Let us remember our first sip of whiskey, and how terrible it was to swallow. And the feeling of warm liquid burning like fire from the depths of hell down our throats and past our hearts.
And let’s give our children as much coke as they need to wash the whiskey down. And teach them to forgive who ever handed them the glass in the first place.
Let us teach our children to love everything and everyone with every bone, muscle, fiber, atom, and cell in their bodies.
And let’s teach our children to keep their promises, and to sincerely apologize when they don’t.
Our children should know that relationships are extremely important, and education and questioning the world around you is the key to reaching your full potential.
Our children should know that regret is non-existent. Experience is the only thing that matters and if they do not enjoy the experience then they should not repeat the process which led them to that outcome.
Our children should know that when we are writing the last page in our book of life, that they are 75 percent of the pages in that book, and that their pages are the most enjoyable to read.
Our children should know that the ending of the book of life isn’t the saddest part, unless you forget to read it with loved ones.
Our children should know to always keep writing, even when their hands are tired and decorated with led and ink.
Most importantly our children should always keep a small sliver of youth, of curiosity, of bright eyes and contagious giggles, hidden beneath their adult-hood.
Buried deep inside their souls, there should always be a child ready to come out and play when needed.
Because children are the most underappreciated beautiful creatures among us, and most of us push the curiosity and innocence away deep inside the darkest parts of our hearts.
We drown the inner child with alcohol, cigarettes, heartbreak, and dishonesty.
And the number that shows up in our bank accounts every other Thursday controls us, and keeps that inner child quiet and submissive.
Do not let a letter with a line through it dominate your book of life.
Let the inner child speak, let them play, and touch the world as they once did years before.
Let them laugh gregariously at inappropriate times because laughter should be free from the boundaries of social acceptance.
And let them live beside you until finally they have a tangible companion, connected by your significant other and the string of genetics between the two of you.
And teach them everything that you wrote about in your book of life, and teach them to pick up a pen or pencil and start writing their own.
If people were to follow these instructions while writing their book of life, everyone would be able to open their hearts and see the world from the eyes of a child.
And maybe we could get up in the morning and love each day before it starts.
And love ourselves to fullest extent, and love others around us the same way.
And life wouldn’t seem so hard, so frustrating, so complex.
We would all see the simple version of life, like we did when we were young.
Like we did when we were…
Children.
I am not really sure if this qualifies as a poem or a strangely formatted short story, but here it is.