"Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold,
Her early leaf's a flower,
But only so an hour,
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day,
Nothing gold can stay."
-Robert Frost
In my 7th grade English class, we read "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton. Part of our assignment was to memorize this poem and explain what we thought it meant.
My immediate rhetorical analysis of the piece was as simple as any 7th grader's would be. I insisted that the poem was strictly about the life cycle of a plant. I now realize that metaphors exist.
For some reason, the poem has stuck with me--believe it or not I typed the whole thing from memory. And I seem to constantly play it in my head. The poem most obviously (for me, anyway) represents the cycle if our lives... of our innocence... of our inner child.
The mind of the child accentuates only the most essential facts and details. And that's something we lose very quickly and very easily. So I decided I would sit in on a class at my church's Catechesis of the Good Shepherd with six students just to listen to some of the life advice children have to give. Here's what came out of my experience...
On friends...
Kid 4: Sometimes... you'll want to be someone's friend but they say no.
Kid 1: I've never had someone say no...
Kid 2: Yes you have...hush.
Kid 1: Oh....
Me: Why do people say no?
Kid 4: Because they just don't like you.
Kid 6: *whispers* Sometimes you should let them say no.
Kid 4: When they say no it causes this whole array of feelings--madness, sadness, then more madness.
Me: Then what do you do about that?
Kid 5: You've just got to walk away from it and accept that some people won't like you.
Kid 2: That's the easiest way to be happy. Just walk away and find some other dude.
On love...
Kid 4: No matter what they do to me I just need to make my family happy, because I love them.
Me: Does anyone know what that is?
Kid 5: Unconditional love.
Kid 3: What in the world is that..?
Kid 1: Is that the same kinda stuff God shows us?
Me: Yes it is. So does that mean we should show it to just our family and friends?
Kid 1: Nope. You gotta spread that stuff.
Kid 4: Like homeless people. They need the most love. Because a lot of times people don't make them feel appreciated. They just need to know that they're appreciated.
Me: What about the people who don't know God?
Kid 1: Don't force them to think anything, just show them the love that God would show them.
On bad days...
Kid 4: The only bad day I've ever had is when my backpack broke.
Kid 5: Seriously...?
Kid 4: Yeah... but it's okay. The day got better when my teacher told me we didn't have home work, so I just got to watch tv all night.
Kid 6: I just love a day where I don't get in trouble.
Me: Well... it sounds like we have a lot of good days. There are lots of people in the world that have horrible days...all the time. What would you say to them if you had any one thing to tell them?
Kid 1: Have a good day. Duh-- well, that and everybody loves them.
Kid 2: It's OKAY. Things will always get better.
Kid 3: I would just go sit with them. Maybe we could play together.
Kid 4: You just gotta make them laugh. Being positive can always make someone feel better.
Kid 5: Remember to breathe. Things are only as bad as you make them out to be.
Kid 6: I would just want to hug them and laugh with them.
I understand that the questions were simple. I understand that things grow more complicated in the future, but it is always possible to keep an open mind and heart.
In the whir of today, try your hardest to stay golden.
