A Child's Touch

Bowling is not really something I am good at. But Han loves it, so I decided, "Hey, why not give it a try?" Our school gave out little cards that let you get one game a day free all summer, so I figured I might as well put it to use.

A little bit of information about me: When I am not good at something, I get very, very upset. If someone tries to make me feel better, I get more upset, because that means that I'm noticably bad. So for a long time, this bowling thing wasn't working out for me.

So the other day I was bowling with Han, and there was this family in the lane next to ours and they have this little boy with them. They are using bumpers, so the little boy isn't doing too badly. He always rolls the ball so slowly. I was not using bumpers, and I was very frustrated because my goal that day was to break 80. I got a gutterball and, clearly upset, went to sit down while Han bowled.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around. The little boy was sitting behind me, kind of turned around and hiding behind the back of his seat. He had big eyes. I smiled at him, even though I was upset, and he returned it, then turned back around, but I kept catching him looking at me for the next couple of minutes.

I did better after that, for some reason. :) I remember later in the game, we both bowled at the same time, and he knocked over about half the pins, and when he turned around to walk back, he looked at me and said, "I won!" I told him good job. He was so cute. ^^

I really love little kids. They always make me so happy. Every time I'm out somewhere with Han and I see a little kid, I just have to point them out and grin. We were in McDonalds once when a little girl with blonde ponytails kept looking over her seat at us. She was so adorable! We made faces back and forth at each other throughout the whole meal.

One thing that I think makes children so charming is that they always seem to be so innocent and, well, good. They seem to enjoy cheering people up, and they are good at it.

Some people would argue that children are naturally bad, with an instinct towards bad things. That's probably true. Children can be heartless and mean at times. But that's a human, isn't it? An instinct towards evil, but a conscious towards good. :) A child is an adult before they've been affected by the environment. Depending largely on the environment, a 'child' may end up with an instinct to do good, such as the urge to help someone on the street or help with the community. And some 'children' may grow to be an adult with no conscious, such as a serial killer or the owner of a huge, isolated business. (Nothing agains business owner people, but really, some of them just don't care about people as long as they are making money.)

So I guess children aren't exactly pure, but since they haven't been as affected by the environment as older people, they come off as much purer than older people in many cases. I can't forgive people who hurt children because of that. They are such beautiful little treasures, with no real way to defend themselves, so when I hear about someone having hurt a child, I just fume and fume and fume. I wish people would be more careful about what they say and show to their children, too. I wish their innocence could be better preserved, but the culture that we have, at least here, doesn't allow it to last more than a few years.

Which makes the little kids all the more special to me. :)

<3 o.