Reclaim the Moment

4BELIEVE IN THE POSSIBILITY OF KINDNESS to Escape the Trap of Pessimism

“To protect innocence from arrogance we carve this skin of stone and as the weights of caste and character layer with the years … we drown”¹

– Trial, “An Awakening”

PESSIMISM STARTS YOUNG.

I was five years old. I was living just outside of Chicago in Highland Park, Illinois, in a neighborhood that seeped with Midwest charm. Parallel streets with two-story houses and shade trees were the norm, each with a yard filled with kids, and often an occasional lemonade stand somewhere along the way to keep you cool.

It was summertime and I was outside on a sunny afternoon, walking up and down the sidewalk watching my brother play. I wasn't wearing shoes, because why not? The worst thing that could happen might be that I could accidentally step on a bee that was basking in the sun on a dandelion.

Life definitely wasn't terrible. Yet.

My younger brother, Darryl, age almost four, was riding up and down the sidewalk on his Big Wheel. For those of you who have heard of the Big Wheel, you might recall seeing that it was a plastic tricycle for kids. But it was more than that. It represented absolute total freedom. The Big Wheel was a product of the 1960s, made wildly popular in the 1970s when parents realized that a plastic tricycle with a low center of gravity would probably injure their kids less frequently than having them ride a metal tricycle that was higher off the ground. Parents bought millions of the things. ...