The Circle of Life

The Circle of Life

I was having my coffee this morning and thinking about my grandchildren.  I have eleven now, from sixteen all the way down to seven months.

I find it fascinating, how children go through so many age-specific stages, beginning with the "terrible twos". Then, from about four on, everything in their world is either black, or white. 

There is no grey area, where things can fall somewhere in between. I'm not sure when the grey area develops, only that somewhere along the road to growing up, it always does.

To a child, there is only right or wrong, good or bad, funny or not funny, nice or not nice, and the kids at school are either friends, or bullies. 

A bad guy is ... a BAD guy, and a bad guy does things that are wrong. Dad is a good guy, because he does things that are right. A mom is another good guy, and so are policemen, mail carriers, doctors, and that nice Mrs. Johnson next door, because she bakes cookies and shares them.

Their view of what's funny is unique, too.  Being teased is not funny, if they feel they are being picked on.  But when someone says 'fart', or 'butt', that is funny.  Even something we adults consider not at all funny, can be very funny to a child -- like, blowing up a marshmallow in the microwave.  You'll know who did it, because the child will be laughing [or trying not to].

Nothing ever smells, or tastes, 'okay' to a child. Again, there's no grey area.  Gasoline and flowers smell good, and feet and swiss cheese smell bad. Brussel sprouts and black jelly beans are 'yukky', but a piece of chocolate cake? As my nephew used to say, "I could make a whole meal outta that."

I think pretending is what comes, just before the grey area begins.  Then life just naturally expands beyond the black and white. 

We learn our parents aren't perfect, teachers don't have all the answers, and our friend will be hurt if we tell him his feet stink. 

Our tastes change, the little mysteries of life are solved, and we find a lot of our questions can be answered by an encyclopedia, or our friends.   

As our view of the world further expands, we shed our childhood innocence. We pretend less and less and enter into the maturity of the grey area, where we stay through all our adult years. 

I was thinking, too, when you get to be my age, everything suddenly turns around.  Ironically, things seem to be heading back to black and white and pretending again.  

Being old and getting wrinkles is bad.  Life, love, children and grandchildren are all good.  And pretending?  Well, I'm pretending I'm going to win the lottery ...



“A writer soon learns that easy to read is hard to write.” ~CJ Heck