Dear Readers, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about when Jesus said, “ . . . unless you become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 18:3).
At our advanced age, how is it possible to become like little children again?
Scripture scholars say this verse simply means we must empty ourselves and trust completely in God, but for practical purposes, exactly what does that look like?
I suggest we emulate the one thing kids do extremely often and extremely well. We should make believe.
A better place
When my brother Kevin was five, he thought he was Superman. I mean, he actually believed he was the man of steel who could leap tall buildings in a single bound. (Luckily, he never did try to jump off a roof).
I remember it well, there we were in the Jewel, Kevin in his red pajama top wearing my navy-blue school uniform tights (quite baggy on his scrawny little legs) and a blue cape (fashioned from a bath towel safety-pinned around his neck).
He would run up and down the grocery aisles, faster than a speeding bullet, attempting to help elderly people lift items into their carts because he was, of course, more powerful than a locomotive.
At the time, I was about nine and completely mortified; I would hide out in the breakfast aisle reading the backs of cereal boxes until it was time to leave.
But truthfully, wouldn’t the world be a much better place if we all really believed we were on a mission to be strong and kind and helpful and fight evil wherever it lurked?
When my son Patrick was three and my daughter Heather was five, they loved Mary Poppins; in fact, Heather loved that movie so much she actually became Jane Banks and insisted Patrick had become Michael Banks.
I was required, of course, to be Mary Poppins.
Heather would only answer to the name “Jane,” (which became quite an issue in her kindergarten class), and she refused to acknowledge me at all unless I was speaking to her with a British accent (which I only agreed to do in order to avoid scenes at the grocery store — back to the old embarrassing trips to the Jewel!)
But truthfully, wouldn’t the world be a much better place if we could all make believe that a spoonful of sugar helped the medicine go down and that fixing broken families was a very noble and very winnable crusade?
Secrets to happiness
Dear Readers, have you ever had a, shall we say, “loud conversation” with your spouse?
If so, then perhaps you learned from a wise marriage counselor (just as I did) that the first step in healing a relationship after an argument is to make believe you have forgiven the other person, even if forgiveness is NOT what you’re feeling.
The idea is, you chose your thoughts (you make believe) in order to facilitate action (you perform some act of loving kindness), and then the true feelings of forgiveness will follow.
So, it turns out, as it so often does in the Bible, the teachings of Jesus offer us the secrets to happiness not only in the afterlife but in this earthly life as well.
But how can we reverse a lifetime of constantly being told, “Grow up!”, “Don’t be such a baby!”, “Stop being childish!”, “Act your age!”?
Is it possible for us adults to learn how to once again make believe as well as children do? Yes, it’s possible! We can follow the example of two grown-ups who are experts at make believe, Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein; all of their musicals begin with a song about making believe.
Minutes after Billy Bigelow and Julie Jordan first meet in Carousel, they sing a duet, “If I Loved You,” in which they make believe they are already in love.
It’s during their very first date, in the opening scene of South Pacific, that Emile De Becque and Nellie Forbush sing “Twin Soliloquies” and make believe they are married.
But the best song R & H ever composed about make believe comes at the beginning of Show Boat when roguish Gaylord and sweet-young-thing Magnolia croon the classic, “We Could Make Believe.” (By the way, dear Readers, it’s very important to note here that all of the above-named shows have a happy ending!)
Even classic self-help books such as The Power of Positive Thinking teach us that the first step in achieving any goal in life is to imagine yourself having achieved it; it’s possible to accomplish almost anything if you can first picture it. In other words, you have to make believe.
In conclusion, the secret to becoming “like little children,” to being childlike without being childish, seems to be a return to the season of our youth to practice make believe.
To that end, let us make believe that a saintly, jolly, white-bearded old man in a red suit will generously, selflessly spread love and laughter throughout the whole world this December the 25th.
And, truthfully, wouldn’t the world be a much better place if we could make believe we will all be his helpers?
Linda E. Kelly is a member of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Madison.