when i was a child, i knew how to love.

but grown up people called this knowledge naivette and ignorance, and they instead taught me how to discriminate, which was a nice way to say that they taught me how to hate. and as i listened to the grown up people more and more, i learned to see things as they did. and when i looked upon people i had once simply loved, it was as though they had been transformed (deformed) and transfigured (disfigured). they were no longer simply who they were, and my relationship to them wasn't a simple enjoyment of their presence and company. it was as though they were held at a distance, and everything about them was no longer innocent, but tainted by motives.

and thus it was that i learned the ways of the world, which were primarily the pathways of hatred.

i am older now, and i can see the folly of the worldly view (even though once it was something to aspire to). but it is hard to return to the pure and simple innocence that i once had; it is hard to trust love. this, nevertheless, is the thing which i must do. this, after all, is the only way to redeem the world: not to correct it, but to remember how to love it, in all its simple glory.

never forget this, that love was not something taught to us; it always already was. it was the world that taught us to hate. and we were all quick studies in a fundamental falsity.

***

parents always wish the best for their children. but in wishing the best, don't discriminate. don't discriminate aspects of the child, and don't discriminate between your child and others. this is perhaps the hardest thing to do. but if you overtly do this, then you covertly teach your children to discriminate within and amongst themselves, and discrimination is on a slippery slope with hatred.

i can clearly remember the words of one nearby parent, who stated proudly that her child was going to punahou (a private school) because she didn't want her child to associate with mediocrity.

i am glad that my daughter and son have not learned to look down on anyone, but approach all with open arms and open heart. someday (soon) the world will teach them to choose their friends wisely; but it is my hope that they will never completely forget how to love. for this is the path that saves the world, this is the labor of the peacemaker, that he can find a way to love the unlovable.