She ran out into the light
suprised,
her arms are open- her mind's eye is
seeing things from a better side
than most can dream
and then I laughed, thanks to life, I laughed. Because in this sixteen-year-old brain, just a sliver of a warm ray of clarification and understanding will sometimes slip through the cracks of confusion and childhood, and it will warm the golden fields of innocence and teendom that linger and blossom there.
I'm never told "You'll understand when you're older," it's just assumed. But how much will I really understand? Can experience and age really compare to the instinctual innocence and imagination of a child?
Do you understand life, Mr. Mailman?
Why does it make sense that tacking on a few more years would ever help one with the ability to wrap their brain around this world and its mysteries? I say, leave it to a five-year-old to solve such mysteries. When a five-year-old is simple and unrefined and free of blemishes, free of scars, and there's no rush deciding on optimism, pessimism, or realism - there's just serenity.
Are we blind-sided by the world's biased bruises that we accquire as life's "experiences" knock us down? And as we reach sixteen, will our confusion and stubbornness envelop our naïveté until it is sucked up and hidden, like a blanket on your feet? A big blanket that convers you in the middle of a snow storm and doesn't let a hint of rainbow in to catch you cold.
and I laughed because this is ridiculous but brilliant- human life, it's absolutely terrifying and ridiculous but glorious and wonderful. It was one of those moment at the end of the movie where the camera pans back and the music begins for the credits. I have those moments a lot. And I think, what if it is about being that simple. What if it is all about summer day popsicles, true love, life and death, and wishes on stars? What if there is no blanket hiding our imagination and innocence? And if I, at sixteen, can have thoughts that some fully grown adults haven't experienced, then maybe that's the key. Maybe all that it takes to unlock this world's mysteries is to unlock your own and to think like a child. I don't know.. it's just a thought.