I see the 3 year olds at the Montessori playing, laughing, learning and sharing in their color blind world. There is a special innocence in seeing the universe through their eyes.
When did we lose our innocence? Why is our political rhetoric so toxic? What is driving hate in this world today? In some sense, we must look at the past to understand our present.
Yesterday, I walked through the the synagogue in the Jewish Quarter in Prague. The walls of the sacred hall memorialize the names of 80,000 forgotten Jews, who never made it home, and were among the many who perished in the concentration camps throughout Europe. Evil is not new to our world.
My eyes welled with tears to see the drawings by Jewish children as they journeyed to their death in Terezin — one of Hitler’s death chambers. More on that later in these pages. For now we must all look within in to find answers.
What can we do as individuals to keep the innocence alive and rid our world of toxicity and hate?
Maybe a simple start is to be more accepting, less judgmental, and less full of ourselves. And in some uncanny way, maybe we can learn from our beautiful children.
About Hemant Rustogi