You don’t see many children depicted in art, except maybe those cute quasi-erotic cupids and cherubs. They tend to be on the naughty side and I suspect the artists snuck them in under false pretenses.
But real-life human children? Young people just being young people? Looking, watching, wondering—learning how to survive—and sharing the newness and wonder of it all? Not much. It’s a shame. There is so much beauty in childhood. Most of it is the light in the eyes—the link to the amazement of the universe.
Bulsby “Buzz” Duncan watches kids watch us. The boys at the fence are “Just Kickin’It.” Lookin.’ If you watch a young person watching you, you know there’s much going on in their heads. You remember doing that. Your brain was running up and down the scales of human awareness—human impulses—human understanding. Sortin’ it all out. Making choices
But it is different now, isn’t it? We haven’t been kind to children lately. We’ve tried our best to snuff out the light of universal amazement in their eyes. Edvard Munch could capture the fear and insecurity in a child’s face. He could find that delicate balance in childhood between trust and hurt, and between fearlessness and crippling self-doubt. He knew that a child’s faith in authority is fragile. Confidence is flimsy.
So what have we done—throughout the world? We’ve taken years from their growing up—we have shut them out of school. We have bombarded them with fear. We question their gender—their very physical being.
All young people have doubts and fears. They’re usually not happy with who they are and fantasize about being someone else. When I was that age I hated myself and wanted to be Elvis. But reality is tough to escape. Young people need structure and direction, not easy answers—because there aren’t any.
The choices that many have made over the past couple of years are tearing them apart. PTSD may overwhelm an entire generation.
I taught teens with problems in two separate eras: The 70s and again in the early 2000s. I have a master’s degree in Special Ed—ED (Emotionally Disabled.) But my understanding came from the thousands of hours I spent getting to know the young people themselves—not from textbooks. It was through art that I could reach almost anyone. It is inherent—it is part of the human package—a link to the supernatural.
Kids need to reach for beauty now more than ever before. We all do.