Christmas Thoughts….On the Virtue of Being Naïve
A friend chided me gently at lunch the other day for being naïve at my advanced age, and tending to believe the best of people. At first, I was hurt, then I tried to decide if she might be trying in her kindly way, to help me. A friend’s eye is a good mirror, they say, and she’s a most beloved friend.
But then, on the way home, it occurred to me that perhaps I’m okay with being a bit naïve. Not as much as when I trusted my heart to the wrong man, or allowed someone else to care for my money – yes I was that dumb – but maybe just enough to not get cynical. I expect cynical people never get taken to the cleaners, or hurt to the heart, or made a fool of. But maybe they also don’t get to believe in justice, or self-sacrifice for a cause, or a number of other ideals I hold dear. Maybe they don’t get to love madly, deeply, truly, or fight for seemingly hopeless causes, that sometimes turn out not to be hopeless afterall.
Nelson Mandela, having spent 27 years unjustly imprisoned, without losing his capacity for goodness, compassion and decency, lived to help spearhead his seemingly powerless fellow countrymen into a negotiated peace with the all-powerful and terminally arrogant British Empire. When asked how it happened, he explained the success in this gentle way:
“Historical enemies succeeded in negotiating peaceful transition from Apartheid to democracy exactly because we were prepared to accept the inherent capacity for goodness in each other.”
How naïve do you have to be to imagine something like that?
© Cathy Cash Spellman/The Wild Harp & Co. Inc 2011
« The Timeline of Dreams | Christmas Past »
Cynical people don’t have the capability of looking at the world with wide eyed wonder. I much prefer my being a bit niave than to lose the capability of truly believing that people are inherently good. That’s not to say I would welcome being a doormat. We live and learn. Cathy, I am very happy to read that you are happy being a bit niave 🙂 Let’s be honest…that’s who and what you are…thank God!
Bless you, Gerry, for understanding…the world seems overrun by cynics at the moment, and I think I’m rather grateful not to be one of them!
Never stop being who you are, hope, love and trust mean everything in this world. If that is naive, so be it.
You’re so right about hope, love and trust meaning everything, Melissa. Maybe being able to maintian a little bit of naivete in the face of life’s obstacles is what lets the magic in.