Naive or innocent?
Cliched as it may sound, once again we've reached that time of year when we dig out the old memories with the holiday table service.
We dust them off and play them back filtering out the bad parts and enhancing the parts that make us feel all warm and fuzzy.
That's the best thing about human nature — the ability to rub out the struggles and the sharp edges of our pasts and fall back on the times when we were connected to one another.
Looking back I was a pretty naïve kid, but you know, that worked back then. I could be a kid. I trusted that my parents "had my back" and knew pretty much everything I did, almost before I did it. No one told me I could call someone and complain if I disagreed with my parents interpretation of right and wrong.
My teacher, policemen, and most adults, were looking out for me so I could concentrate on important stuff like playing with my friends.
I walked to school without a bodyguard with every expectation of learning a thing or two and arriving back home again safe and sound.
No one tried to give me drugs, and I emphasize "give," because I didn't have any money or expensive tennis shoes, cell phone, CD player — any of today's must-have accessories.
I must have been naïve because when I started attending Morning Star School, the day started with a prayer and it seemed OK. It didn't occur to me that I could have kept my mouth shut if I didn't want to pray. Even at that young age I knew that I was not the end-all and be-all so it seemed right to me to ask for help from someone far greater than myself.
I also recited the Pledge of Allegiance standing shoulder to shoulder with my classmates. It seemed like a good thing to be proud of my country and the freedom we all had. I was not weighed down with concepts like brainwashing and I didn't know who Hitler was. I was just a dumb kid who enjoyed playing with my friends and dreaming about the wonderful future I would have one day.
Looking back on it, naiveté worked for me because it was just another word for innocence. If I could snap my fingers and produce anything I wanted, the innocence of an uncluttered childhood is what I would bestow on today's generation, but you know what? I'm not that naïve.
Dinah Richmond
(Editors note: Dinah Richmond is a life-long resident of the Peabody area.)
