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As does the heart

By BEN NELMS
bnelms@TheCitizenNews.com

I was talking with a friend recently about trust. Later, as I considered our conversation, I began thinking about where trust comes from, what we do with it and how it plays out in our lives. With me, trust runs on many levels, depending on intuition, knowledge of the person and the gravity of the issue at hand. I imagine most of us are that way. It reminds me how quickly, and perhaps permanently, our willingness to trust, and even more importantly, to actually live life rather than just existing through it, can be affected. Thinking about trust led me to consider some of the things that shape our lives.

The capacity to dream, actually the willingness to dream, has long been considered the province of lovers, sages and the young. The revitalization of the dreams of a people has always been contained in its youth and in its pioneers of thought. And how often have we seen the hopes and aspirations of youth, its very dreams of justice and truth, become the deteriorated, burned out dreams of adulthood? Truth be known, is this not what our children sometimes see in us? Not so much in the failure to promote a fulfilling life by denying our dreams, but in what can so easily become a complacency about life itself, usually credited to the vital responsibilities we all face and the reality that the world is so often a truly dangerous place.

Well, kids may be young but they are not stupid. Many parents know this. Some do not. "Kids" in their teens, always know more about the world than many parents will usually recognize or admit. Remember? And that reality continues to increase over time. Even the most sheltered today are vastly more streetwise than their parents could ever have been. And, sadly, it's true that people everywhere grow up much faster than they should have to. But the real trouble ensues if parents fail to understand or don't care to understand that their children are quite aware when an adult is not walking their own talk, yet insisting that their kids do so.

Tragic today is the reality that, now more than ever, the time it takes to become "comfortably numb" to life, love and humanity can occur before a person reaches their teenage years. Negativity, judgmental words, domestic and societal violence, so often modeled by parents and other adults, is quickly and effectively passed on to children, replacing their outlook on life with one where hopelessness and mistrust become the order of the day. In that life, the last remnants of constructive idealism can fall prey to the stranglehold of a kind of cynical realism.

But none of this need to permanent. Kids of all ages can see the truth that is all around us, if we want to. We all can and do change for the better if that's what we want. I believe that over a lifetime we remain largely the same, the foundation of personality and outlook having been largely formed as very young children. Yet there exists in each of us the capacity to change for the better throughout our lives. Inside each of us exists the small voice of conscience, a bright beacon that can pierce the colorless vaccuum of self and compel us toward a fulfilling life, if we would but let it have its way. And in a very complex and dangerous world conscience still functions to point the way toward a greater change, a greater personal freedom than we ever knew before. This is exactly why Christ is so completely correct in suggesting that we treat all people as we would like to be treated. That action, willingly engaged, causes a continuous transformation in each of us. That transformation makes the difference between looking at someone and actually seeing her. It makes the difference between listening to someone and actually hearing him. Born in empathy, in love, conscience has no equal. Water seeks its own level, as does the heart. nal freedom than we ever knew before. This is exactly why Christ is so completely correct in suggesting that we treat all people as we would like to be treated. That action, willingly engaged, causes a continuous transformation in each of us.