Innocent Eyes

I heard a great travel story recently. A woman was waiting to get on a train and standing behind a family, 15 minutes early for the train's arrival. The family included a mother, father, and a son around four years old.  Never underestimate how perceptive a child can be.

As the train arrival time drew near, hundreds of people more attuned to the schedule arrived to get on the train. The little boy looked around at all the people, tugged on his Dad's pant leg and said, "Hey Dad, can you believe how many people are going to Legoland!"

I love the simplicity of a child's innocent view of the world. His view, albeit incorrect, makes the world so much easier to deal with. If everybody is going to Legoland, everybody must love building things. Everybody must enjoy adding new types of blocks to their collection. And everybody must be as excited as he is to get on that train.

As adults, most of us see the complexity of the people waiting to get on the train. We know everybody isn't going to Legoland. We know that the reasons for these people to be getting on this train involve a diversity of purposes beyond our own comprehension. The good news is we see more accurately the situation. Or do we?

I think there is a truth in the little boy's perspective that would be wise for us all to hear. Everybody does love building things - just not necessarily things made of Lego. We feel most alive when we are building relationships, ideas, projects, character and/or personal dreams. We also love adding new blocks to our collection - it's just that for adults these blocks are personal assets that we can use in our personal and professional lives.

Think of how unified we would feel on that train, recognizing we all share a common pursuit of personal assets and dreams. We would see our connectedness to these people, just like the little boy. We may even engage in conversations more readily as we seek to learn more about other people's personal Legolands. I think there is a stunning beauty in this boy's most innocent observation.

In Bob Seger's song, 'Against the Wind', he sings, "I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then." What a great summation of the essence of lost innocence. I believe it is possible for each of us to once again not know. We can do this by placing more focus on our commonalities than our differences. Both are there for us to see in any crowd. It is the things we share that help us to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. As any little boy can tell you, this makes it very exciting to share the train ride to wherever we are all going.