'

Before life removed all the innocence'

The worst of us is not without innocence, although buried deeply it might be. ~ Walt Disney

Innocence is the state of being innocent; the condition of being free from evil or guile, or from that which corrupts or vitiates. Additionally, innocence is purity of heart; freedom from taint; harmlessness; and, innocuousness.

It can also mean simplicity or ignorance through lack of intellect or imperfect development; hence, weak mindedness.

However, it is not my intention here to deal with the latter form of innocence that is the bequest of birth. The differently abled are truly the children of innocence; and hence life can never remove any of their innocence, howsoever hard it may try. What concerns me is how life removes all the innocence from the innocent babe - the little child - untainted with sin, and free of any wrong: immaculate, pure and sinless; who, as yet, has never known the possibility of evil.

Innocent

All life is supposedly born innocent. People say so and we take it for granted. But, I do not look at it that way.

We inherit all kinds of things that we can do nothing about, and are not even aware of, at birth. To begin with, we inherit our karma; then our identity and history from our parents. Life-long, for good or bad; for the better or for the worse; it sticks to us like a birthmark that we cannot wash off - that which life has bequeathed us. Our innocence, at that point in time, is mostly because of our incapacities and incapableness - as with all newly born life. I believe that, in time, and as we begin the learning process, we have to earn our innocence. We have to grow up and become innocent.

When we are children, we seldom think of the future. Our innocence, as children, leaves us free to enjoy ourselves as few adults can.

Future

The day we begin to fret about the future, is the day we leave our childhood behind. In essence, it also ought to be the day when we commence our journey to become righteous, upright, and virtuous. For, from that day, "Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being" - Albert Camus, The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt. Innocence, which is goodness without temptation or trial, or perhaps without knowledge of evil, connotes less than virtue. Unlike innocence, virtue is the result of goodness that resists and overcomes temptation.

In fact, innocence is a kind of negative word, expressing less than the meanings of the words righteous, upright, or virtuous.

The latter words imply knowledge of good and evil, with free choice of the good; and these traits can be attained, only through learning the difference between good and evil.

I remember a song called "Dance With My Father" in which the lyrics went something like this: "Back when I was a child, before life removed all the innocence, my father would lift me high and dance with my mother and me and then spin me around 'till I fell asleep.

Then up the stairs, he would carry me and I knew for sure I was loved. If I could get another chance, another walk, another dance, with him, I would play a song that would never, ever end. How I love, love, love to dance with my father again."

There was more to the lyrics, and it was all equally sentimental and touching as the above.

It is well and good to reminisce about our life as children, loved and cherished as we all were, by our parents.

But it is also true that our loss of innocence, or more precisely, the prevention of the learning process of innocence; of becoming innocent; commences at our parental home. Parents tear through, and shred to pieces, the innocence of their children; and inculcate them with partialities and prejudices; bias and narrow-mindedness. In the eyes of most parents, innocence becomes a kind of insanity.

Stress

They then strive and stress to rid the child of its innocence; and try to replicate themselves, in the child.

The harm that parents do to their children, in the name of love and affection, is far worse than that which the child could inflict upon itself - knowingly and unknowingly.

The parents not only not permit the development of innocence in their children; but also, on account of their love for their children and in the mistaken belief that they know best, go all out to make them 'fit for life' - a process that involves the suppression of free choice.

Effort

If, in spite of this effort, a child grows up and remains innocent; then it does so with the innocence of the ignorant. Ignorance is not innocence, but sin. To possess the virtue of innocence, one needs to possess the virtue of humility. Innocence protects us from the poison from without; humility protects us from the poison from within. Pride, our most toxic inner poison causes our vision of ourselves, and reality, to be blurred.

It leads us to take ourselves too seriously and reality not seriously enough. It is, in fact, the falsification of fact by the introduction of self.

There are cynics who see nothing of value.

There are fanatics who see nothing other than themselves to be of value. Innocence allows us to see value wherever it exists.

Humility prevents us from perverting it for our own use. Humility gives us a clean window; innocence gives us a clear vision. Together they allow us to see the world as it is.

Let me end this with a quote from Donald de Marco, Professor at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, CT and Professor Emeritus at St. Jerome's University in Waterloo Ontario.

He is the author of 20 books, including The Heart of Virtue, The Many Faces of Virtue.

"A genuine appreciation of things requires seeing them against a boundary of nonexistence. From the perspective of nonbeing, all light seems lightning, every sensation becomes sensational, and each phenomenon appears to be phenomenal. The attitude of humility, because it expects nothing, is ready to appreciate everything.

The person who empties himself is best prepared to fill himself with the wonders of the universe."

See you this day next week. Until then, keep thinking; keep laughing. Life is mostly about these two activities.

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