Look and see.

Lately I’ve found myself paying attention to younger kids more frequently.  I love their honesty; their fearlessness as they present their original, creative ideas; their ability to be free.  At what age do we lose this ability to be exactly who we are, without fear, without hiding?  I know different life circumstances can change how we allow ourselves to interact with the world, but I think we all start out with a raw naturalism, where even the way we view ourselves is met with an attitude of contentment.  

I am currently at the Ames Public Library sitting next to a mom working on her laptop, and her kids are playing on the ground near her.  The children, completely unaware that when in a library setting you are supposed to be quiet, continually run up to their mom and ask questions and tell her the most important things on their minds.  They are so free.  Their ideas and the way they view the world seem to be so uninhibited by fear.
What I think I love most about kids, though, is their ability to really look at people.  And not only look at people, but to see people.  They seem to notice things about people no one else does.  I want to improve upon that ability again.

I was walking across campus the other day and I was very aware of my surroundings, specifically the people, as I walked.  Something I noticed is that people are really good at keeping to themselves—avoiding eye contact, walking quickly and seemingly in their own worlds, even looking down at the ground much of the time.  I made it my goal to try to look everyone I passed in the eyes—it was very difficult to do!  Most people looked at me and then did the whole, “quick look away as if we did not just make eye contact, even though we did, so the situation becomes slightly awkward…something we both feel but neither person acknowledges it.”  This made me wonder—why are we so afraid of really looking at other people sometimes…or of letting other people look at us?  Do we have a fear that if we look at people for too long, they will see a glimpse into our imperfections?  That we will not be able to maintain the façade that we all keep up at times, which would, in turn, ultimately expose the parts of us we do not want anyone to see?
Something that intrigues me is that we could all be looking at the exact same things; we could even all be experiencing the exact same things, and we will never truly, truly know what it is like to look at the world through someone else’s eyes.  

The thing about kids is that even though they tend to see people, their view of people does not seem to be impacted.  I have known kids to be some of the most honest, yet accepting people that exist.  Funny how I am in graduate school right now, and my biggest learning at this very moment is coming from the simplest, most unexpected place—children.