What a beautiful idea and a beautiful day. I celebrated with the girls and we invited children from Kotumba, a nearby NGO that is a home for disabled girls, to join us in the celebration. I gave a welcome speech, and there was singing and kolatta [traditional Indian dance], a drama and biscuits with juice.
Why don't we celebrate a Children's Day in the United States? We have Mother's Day and Father's Day...but not Children's Day. Maybe it's because in many cultures in America, we rush childhood. From the youngest age, we ask children what they want to be when they grow up. Throughout school, they are being prepared for when they grow up. Children are taught that every activity they do will go on their transcript, which will transfer to their college applications, which will provide experience for future jobs. Therefore nothing [and I am using the word 'nothing' in a harsh and over-generalizing manner] we do as children is for the fun, innocent joy of being a child. It focuses on the future. Children don't need to be celebrated in one day - Mothers and Fathers, now they do a lot of work. They definitely deserve a celebration. Some may argue that we do celebrate children daily because our lives as mothers and fathers, teachers and caretakers, revolve around them. Which is true, in a sense. But when do we actually celebrate childhood?
We can learn so much from children. Even my girls, who have experienced a lot more of the harshness, complexity, and struggle of this world than I probably ever will, still have a childlike trust, innocence, and blitheness from which I learn daily. Through the lens of a child, life is so simple and clear. One song that the girls sang was about the impact of America on India, on the impact of Western business and globalization on Indian lifestyle, economy, and livelihood. It wasn't a song they were forced to sing; they heard it on the radio, copied the words, and practiced to sing it because they believed it. "Before, we used to drink coconut water. Then coca cola came and started producing in India. It polluted the land and the water and made life harder for those in agriculture. Coca cola is bad for you, and now children want to drink it instead of coconut water. It is expensive and people cant afford it and they feel bad because they cant give their children what they want." This could clearly be quite a political song, yet for the girls, there were no politics involved; rather, as children they saw it as truth, plain and simple. There was no judgement; they just saw the effects on their lives and the people they love and wanted to tell us about it. (Another thought that would require another blogpost is this: would American children be aware of issues like this and care enough to sing a song about it?)
Jesus said we must be like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven...how often do we remember this? And what does it even mean?
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