JPG Magazine: Stories: Photo Essay: Remember Being a Kid?

Remember Being a Kid?

By Lucius Luther

7 July 2007

When I am not holding a camera, I work with children. Monday to Friday - Child Protection. Sunday School teacher on weekends. I see a lot of kids. Many of them deprived of childhood. Here is what I think kids need. It is simple. We need to let them be kids.

Laughing

Playing

Crying

Fighting

Learning

Teaching

Breathing

Sleeping

Eating

Loving

Easier said than done, though. When was the last time you really listened to a child? Do we care what they really think? I do! They are great teachers. They can help us be better people. They forgive and sometimes forget. They cry and fight and they get over it and are soon playing together again.

Kids have the wonderful capacity to cut through all the non-essential and talk about what is important.

They do not have our sense of urgency and need to control time. They can suspend reality. They can have conflicting emotions and not need a visit to the shrink. They can do amazing things that we have somehow forgotten the importance of.

Remember the last time you hugged someone just because you felt like it? Ate a PBJ for dinner with a glass of milk? Played in the rain without worrying about your clothes? Ate a popsicle and let the juice drizzle down your arm? When was the last time you took a nap on a hot summer afternoon? Or played a game for fun?

So, watch and kid and learn. Talk to a kid, but most importantly, really listen when you hear kids talking. They are great teachers.