Innocence seems to be a lost "art". So many of us lose it as we get older. I know I hold on to it, stubbornly refusing to let it fade, like an old photograph in a forgotten album. Yet many toss it away, almost with relief. Younger generations, however…..have they ever gotten the chance to become acquainted with innocence at all?
I see innocence fading at younger and younger ages. For those my age, around my age, or older, we probably associate our loss of innocence with our first brush with death or trauma (Santa isn't real????) But today in America, innocence comes and goes in the blink of a pre-pubescent eye.
Children are thrust into the adult world with hardly any, if any, rites of passage. I remember when I was a young girl longingly staring down the stairs while watching the "grown ups" at my parent's party. I would run up the stairs if I thought anyone caught me taking a glimpse into the "looking glass" of ADULTHOOD. I truly remember thinking about how I couldn't wait to be old enough to be considered an adult, yet knowing I had years to wait.
Thanks to cell phones, computers, Facebook, "Reality TV", tabloids, the paparazzi, online shopping and more, the world, and everyone in it, is everyone else's business. All is virtually laid at at the public's fingertips for exploration and exploitation. The mystery of life, the magic of the first kiss, what sex looks/sounds/feels like, waiting for a phone call, the thrill of finding an answer after hours (maybe days) or searching for it through the shelves of the public library ------> gone. All can be had somewhere, instantly, and usually at a discounted price.
Emotions, personal issues, weight, sex lives, relationships, death, birth, sickness have all become statuses and if something happens in the news, the race is on for who can post it first. All is on display for "friends" to bear witness to.
Bras, men's underwear are now considered outerwear and on display. Modesty and boundaries have slipped into the "that was so 1990's" abyss (as if that was SOOO long ago). Time is fleeting, in the moment and action-packed.
Perhaps we are learning to shed some of our Puritanical hypocrisy, but ultimately, what is the price of losing our innocence as an individual and as a society? How will we evolve without the curiosity or eagerness to learn and seek answers? What will life be like when the mystery and beauty of it dissolves into the delete button?
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Comments: 30
Innocence is a state of mind and, as such, it can be regained as well as lost - that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
I had my family over for Thanksgiving. I had to refuse to give my niece's daughter my wireless password at the dinner table so she couldn't play with her phone while eating (9 years old!). After dinner, everyone (children and adults) except my sister and me had some device in their hands. No one was talking to each other -- unless by text message. It makes me very sad.
Tis a sad state just to have to make this rule.
The ideal is ever present in our spirits, I believe, but hearts grow hard and cold and personal interaction is quicker and less traumatic with a quick click of 'LIKE' without giving way to serious thinking and communication. Advancing Technology is robbing us of the relational capacities we were created to exercise face to face. We've also grown more afraid of each other, of personal honesty, trying to be politically correct at every step. Discernment is now called being judgmental, and every one and everything we believe is just fine . . . hence the decline of moral values, respect and honor from an early age. Teenage Crime is on the rise; we are not evolving into a better humanity, we are on the course of destroying our heritage. Yet I'm also willing to believe that the grace of God is able to turn us around, to seek once more the values that we inherited from birth. May that be our prayer for the sake of future generations.
I hope we are just teetering and not over the edge.
xxxxxx
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.
Sometimes, just sometimes things have to be on the table. I vote for this age. The time of knowledge available to all not a select few.
Innocence didn't lead to the butchery - ignorance did.
Therein lies a lot of the difficulty, in my opinion. If we had a coming-of-age ritual, we would all take this issue a lot more seriously.
Thanks for sharing with Gather's Luminous Writers and Artists. Featured.