Innocence

People maybe tend to think of a child with limited experience in the world as innocent. They dis-identify as they cannot be innocent because they are not children. They know how the world works. I think differently because adults aren't much different from children except in how we believe we know how the world works – and is that really any different? Children always think they know more than they do, just like adults.

So we are all innocent. We are all children thinking we know more than we we do, or children thinking they are not smart enough to keep up with the “real” adults.

Today, let me express my innocence by being open to direction, to divine inspiration.

During my intensive, I'd like to begin days as I would at an intensive. Journaling, mediation, movement.

There's also an idea that children can remain innocent longer if we don't teach them about sexuality and pleasure. Apparently, erotic pleasure is the opposite of innocence. But children still figure things out through experimentation and hearsay, sometimes with unexpected or tragic results. There's a believe we lose our innocence as we learn about the world. But there's a companion definition of innocence – which is simply “not guilty,” blameless. The two get confused, ignorant and blameless. So if children don't know what causes pregnancy, and they become pregnant, they are blameless, or innocent. I guess. The underlying desire is for them not to think about sex, but that's not how people work.

I am innocent, I am blameless, no matter the depth of my carnal knowledge. Is there a way for a person to lose their innocence? If you do something and then later realize you've hurt someone, you lose some innocence. If you do something you think is right, and realize it's very wrong, innocence suffers.

So always remain teachable. Learn quickly when you've made a mistake to reduce the harm done.