the balloon

I love conversations with six year olds. They are simple and fun, like holding on to a balloon.
Six year old Eevie was having a conversation the other day and was telling me about valentine’s day. She told me that she had a boyfriend.

I asked her about it, and she told me how “Lucas” asked her if she had a boyfriend and she said “yes”. He said “who” and she pointed at him. (haha)

He pointed at himself and said “Me?” and she said “YES YOU”. Then Eevie said that “he kind of smiled” but “I think he was shocked”.
She then happily told me that “he is bringing me lots of toys for Valentines”.

Children have such an innocent and uncomplicated interpretation of how boyfriends and girlfriends work.
She is not worried about protocol or consequences, she just assumes that he wants to be her boyfriend and so, in fact, he does.
She said confidently added that “if we still like each other in high school we will probably get married”.

Yay for marriage!
She also told me that “he protects me” because “when kids are doing stuff mean, he jumps in and tells the kids that ‘Eevie does not like that so you better stop’”.
I said “so he is looking out for you huh”? She said “yes he is my boyfriend …DUH”.
So then I had to divert from THAT conversation and explain to her that when some people say DUH, it is to imply that someone else is stupid.
“I did not know that” she said. So I explained that it is ok to use DUH when talking about yourself.
“For example, if you said, oh I locked the door but my purse is inside DUH…because it is better to poke fun and laugh at yourself, for forgetting your purse, instead of insulting others,” I said.
As I recall this conversation, the reason I loved it is because children are joyful and honest and unafraid.
Eevie was talking to her brother, a few minutes later, about how if someone was trying to “murder” him, he could use his taekwondo punches. He asked her what he was supposed to do if someone picked him up and tried to cut him in half. She said calmly, “don’t worry, I will teach you the best punches and kicks when we get home”. “You do not want them to kill you because then you would be “dead” she said matter of factly”. “And dead is not good” she added.
OR YOU CAN RUN AND HIDE I suggested as I added my two cents to their conversation.
Any shadow of fear or “balloon” of privacy invasion or destruction or death is meaningless and unimportant to six year olds. They are busy focusing on joy and playing and talking to their friends.
Computers, or other artificial environments, have no permanent allure for them. They debate what they see that is fiction dispassionately, and in fact, the entire conversation they had about “murder”, probably came from things that happen on “games” that they see.
But they are not afraid or worried about it.
For them it is not real.
I LOVE this.
And just like children, if we are trying to “be like these little ones”, like it says in the bible, for us, the “evil tree” in the garden of Eden, also “is not real”. With our free will, we get to choose, just like Eve did, whether or not we really want to “consume” the “knowledge” from that tree. The fruit of that tree was nothing good, which is why she was told to stay away from it, in the first place. Children are most likely to listen to good and do not consume.
And if there is a “balloon” floating around, that balloon, to a child, is a beautiful thing. It is colorful, and it is a toy and it has no power to hurt or destroy anything. Eventually, accidentally or on purpose, it pops and it never did any damage. Those who make balloons for kids are also friends, and have a good, not an evil intention. Because who ever heard of an evil balloon?
I am grateful for the stories in the bible that allow us to take events that are current and put them in biblical context. Like that “tree of knowledge”.
Just recently, in Austin, the trees lost lots of branches from an ice storm.

A biblical analogy perhaps, is that for those in society who have been misled, the “tree of knowledge” (evil) is losing its importance, has less and less allure, and is no longer a captivating “feature” of the environment.

I wrote a story a while back about a little girl with a balloon. That little girl in the story, is thriving and well today. That balloon had a useful purpose, to celebrate her growth and her understanding of good, on her birthday, for which I am grateful.

It was a cute story, but the balloon is now gone. And like the bible says, “joy cometh in the morning”, not just for her but for all of us who understand good. Evil that has not been “consumed” or accepted, or given a platform, has no power, and poof, it is gone.