Strange poetry

[fpb]

I am not much of a believer in the innocence of children - I recall my childhood all too well - and I have a certain inborn resistance against sentimentality. There are, however, some pictures from time to time to which it would be inhuman not to soften. Yesterday, for instance, I was at mass. On the other side from me there was a large Indian family, father, mother and some children, of whom the smallest can hardly have been more than three. As the Eucharistic Prayer proceeded towards the Consecration, I saw her start doing a silent dance, turning and turning on herself, with a thoughtful expression on her face. A little girl of two or three, dancing alone by herself in the presence of God.

Comments

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

I must plead guilty to be somewhat soft-hearted towards small children in general--despite, as you say, recalling my own (and especially my younger siblings') childhood naughtiness quite well. I'm never sure how much to put down to biology (hooray for being a childless woman in her late twenties), but thank you for posting that image-in-words. Those are the moments I try to capture somewhere and save. They are unutterably precious (and I mean that in the strictest sense of "to be prized").

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Check my response to norwyn below.

[rfachir.livejournal.com]

Nonsense - you're the softest heart I know. I'm glad those sights come to you - you need to recharge your joy batteries.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Check my response to norwyn below.

Here by way of hafguk's lj...

[norwyn.livejournal.com]

I don't know you, but...I was scrolling hafguk's friends page, read this post, and had to comment: If we never outgrew the desire to dance alone in the presence of God, we would ever retain the childlike qualities necessary to meet our Father in the manner which most pleases Him.

I watched my own daughter dance a quiet and unobtrusive ballet during the song service at church a few weeks ago. I could not take my eyes off the beauty of this simple but powerful worship from the heart of a precious little girl. Thank you for causing me to remember this.

You may deny your sentimentality all you'd like, but I'm not quick to believe it. :D

Re: Here by way of hafguk's lj...

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Sentiment is natural and simple. Sentimentality is the manipulation of sentiment to overcome reason and criticism; it is to sentiment what advertising pornography is to natural sexual desire, and I hate it even more. Let me give you an instance. Somewhere there is a demonstration about environmentalism or Third World debt, in which children take part. Some damned TV journalist interviews a ten-year-old, who is certainly not old enough to have a reasoned opinion on anything beside conkers, and the child replies with platitudes s/he has heard from his parents or his teacher. And the whole thing is broadcast with a glow of implicit moral approval that suggests that the "innocent" in question (who has maybe just pulled some prank against another child, or thrown a tantrum, or refused to obey his parents) is also wise, and that the platitude in question is given some sort of moral validity by being repeated by an "innocent" child. That sort of thing makes me wish to strangle the journalist, the teacher, and whoever allowed it to be broadcast. It is not reporting; it is brute manipulation, abuse of a suggestible child, and shameless propaganda. It does not matter whether the cause is good or not, the methods stink. This is what I call sentimentality. On the other hand, children are capable of great unconscious beauty when unmanipulated and alone; as well, of course, as of astonishing selfishness and sometimes quite scary cruelty.

Please allow another interruption...

[norwyn.livejournal.com]

I must mention that the above comments were people basically saying they thought it was touching that you would choose to comment on such a lovely happening...I will refrain from using the word cute here, as I fear your head might have cause to spin off... :D

And I do agree that the selfish manipulation of children to advance a "cause" is morally repugnant and has no place in decent society. Of course there is less decent society by the day, apparently. Further, there is little, if any true reporting anymore. We are forever surrounded by "brute manipulation" and "shameless propaganda", at least in the U.S. I will dare to assume that it is not much better overseas. I cannot fathom the ease with which society will accept the implied wisdom of a young child spewing rhetoric of which he could not possibly have an understanding. Wisdom is manifested in presence, in reflection, in conscious action, and (often) in age. Wisdom does not visit the young as she once did, because the burdens of a materialistic existence simply do not welcome her presence. When one has to sow and reap one's own sustenance from the earth, realizing the frailty of life and the ease with which it can end, one would be more open to her presence than during a weekly trip to Wal-Mart in one's fully-loaded SUV.