Sunday, August 06, 2006

Rights, like a dream



Childhood is like a dream.

Childhood, like a dream, is evanescent. Children grow up into adults. Dreams fade away when we awaken. But childhood does not end with a child’s growing up. Neither does dreaming end with one’s awakening. Childhood remains, to remind us of our humanity. We continue to dream too, and sometimes someone may try to turn a dream of a better world into reality.

Ensuring the human rights of children is like granting humanity the right to dream.

Do we have the right to dream?

Painting: Dream of my Childhood, by Lela Maharobeli.

6 comments:

Vincent said...

Lovely picture, and important words. Spent the day yesterday with my own younger children (aged 20 and 17) recognising with a pang that they will go their own ways, make their own mistakes, pursue their own passions & that my love for them just is what it is. I can't protect them from the world, change the world for them, or make them behave differently.

But all the same, I do not feel helpless and hopeless. There is something I have faith in, and though I have forsaken all religion, all approach to God, I recognise it as a religious feeling.

dwaipayan said...

this is my 1st visit. and i do have to come back,, u've got an interesting way of writing

Darius said...

"Ensuring the human rights of children is like granting humanity the right to dream."

That's truly beautiful. And truly true. Wish you could convince a few world leaders...

Bonita said...

We have much 'unfinished business' when it comes to children. It is our job to live in the present in such ways as to insure a better future for them, a future safe from violence and poverty. I hope the world's children will sleep in safety tonight.

Dr.Alistair said...

human responsibility is what i wish for us all...........and i dream like a child. when we politicise and legalise things we create traps that we cannot imagine. to give our children rights is to break thier understanding and respect and thier love for us.and they will begin to use them against us. the adult children that we call politicians are using those same rights against us as we speak.
and, yes, no matter what our children will become other than us. we must plan on it. we cannot bind them to any sort of obligation. the greatest gift we can give is freedom.

Deb Sistrunk Nelson said...

I am touched by this post. As always, your written and visual presentation are excellent.

I'd like to think that a child still lives within me. The day I stop dreaming is the day I die.