by Ann Upuji
In adulthood sometimes it is akin to foolishness, at teenage most people relate to it as naivety but the beauty of innocence in childhood is second to none.
Childhood is a phase in human life where the concentrated remnants of an angel resides in the body and soul of a little one.
Although some cultures relate childhood innocence to the ignorance to the dynamics of their sexuality but no!, the concept of a child’s innocence is broader than that one aspect. It is their exceptional ignorance , simplicity where there should be grandiosity, their lack of knowledge of evil and their lack of willingness to explore evil to their advantage, their glittering purity yet unspoiled by the mundane things of the world, the brow raising incapability to holding a grudge, their acceptance to being led even when they should put up a fight, their lack of willingness to fight for the cause of pride or cover obvious shame, the extravagant ways of expressing emotions not afraid to let the world know what they want or feel even if it means throwing a tantrum.
One could argue with religious beliefs that affirm that infant baptism is a necessity incase a child dies at infancy so that heaven is sure but the reality is that the affirmed prerequisite for the inhabitants of heaven is a pure soul and because an infant child though present in the world, possesses a soul incorrupt which means totally pure and therefore heaven worthy, it would not be fallacious to say that they have an automatic ticket to heaven had they transitioned at that time.
In the book “Without a silver spoon” written by Eddie Iroh, a certain story is said of a child who was left alone in a house that was later invaded by two men of the underworld , rather than launching an attack on the assailants or better still letting out a cry for help, the angelic human served kola nuts to the robbers ensuring they were comfortable, the name for this singular act in adulthood is “foolishness” but in childhood it is accepted as “innocence”.
It is safe to say that the world is poison to a child and biology gladly allows it because as it grows, bits of the angel is taken back to whence it came as angels do not belong in this world, there is no comfortable room for angels on earth. If innocence survives till adulthood , the world is going to torture it because that is what the world echoes, “this world is not for the weak”, in the context of the world, an angelic human is a weak human, the world struggles to understand a person who grows up clutching tightly onto innocence .
It is a mystery to many eyes to see purity unless it occurs in the body of a child, the human eyes many a time can not accommodate the concept of innocence in adulthood because the mentality of majority of the human race is so twisted and warped by the widely believed curse at the era of creation where it was ordained at the time of creation that man must till the soil till his back aches lest he does not feed hence a person in myriads of cases has to exhibit meanness towards another to a certain level for them to be regarded and taken seriously else you are accepted as a walk over.
Man looses innocence as he morphs into adulthood, he looses it through experience, hurt, pain, teaching, infact he unlearns innocence as a necessity because he has to survive the forces of nature and energy emitted from other humans and situations, the loss of innocence in many scenarios is directly proportional to wearing the armour of survival.
The grimy aspect of innocence lost most times is like severally loosed teeth in the face of a very beautiful girl which means a pathetic distortion of the stereotype of what the supreme deity originally sculpted at the time of creation, this is why we have to leave our stained mortal bodies in order to be with the creator when death calls.
A child is the embodiment of an angel seen and accepted by the world, childhood innocence is by far THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I HAVE EVER SEEN.
Ann Upuji can be reached at upujia@gmail.com
