On Running Away

We’re being naïve, at least, that’s how they’ll see it. And

they’re right, babe, they’re totally right.

We’re stepping onto a plane vastly

undiscovered, a plane so adventurous and

irresponsible. The time to be naïve is now.

But you know what I say?

I say so what.

I say the world has enough

adults, that the only

way to be not only

an adult but also human is to

live outside of it,

I say the world needs more

love.

I say I need more love.

I say you need more love.

I say love is green and watery,

grass in the riverbed.

The riverbed is time and cities

and the SATs and postmarked

decisions, but the riverbed

is also you, also me,

also the knowledge of self.

We must understand our naivety.

We must see it as a denial.

A denial of societal “truths” in

the name of individual truth,

that the truth is not in yesterday.

But in today. By bringing back

the mud from the firsthand

wonders of danger,

whether it’s the wail of police

sirens or the edge of a knife,

the cold sweat of a desperate

kid with no way out,

we will not only live

in complete understanding,

We will be the grass in the riverbed.

And then, only then, will we have

the power and wisdom

to change the world.

Let us be so naïve.

Because in little kids

there are new ideas,

because in little kids

there is honesty,

simplicity, imagination.

Because in little kids

there is love.

Let us love, and be loved.

The world has enough adults.