every once in a while, i am reminded of a child's smile. a little girl, a little girl who became my friend one night two years ago, at a dinner event. i was to play guitar. after the playing i went outside and played with all the little kids whose parents and grandparents sat at dinner. i remember there were many children and i talked and played with all of them. we played hide and seek, i was a dinosaur, we looked at dinosaur learning cards. it was a thing that i was part of, in my place.
this little girl was very shy. some are and some aren't. usually you say hi and if they're okay it's okay and that's it. most aren't too shy when i say hi. some are but i like to talk them out of it. so i think i get on okay with kiddies. in fact i think i get on very okay.
this little girl was very shy. all the other little kiddies were yapping on and on already and this little girl was standing a little farther away, not quite ready to join in the okaying. i made sure to say hi, and ask her if she liked dinosaur cards. or something. it didn't matter. she answered, i think she answered. of course, she kept quiet for a while more, and all the while all the other little kiddies were on full okay. before long we broke into hide and seek. and she joined, and we had a lot of fun.
after that we sat down. i think we went back to just yapping. and i can't remember what i said but suddenly she said something (what it was i don't remember at all now) and she made me a smile. a smile that i will remember to my last day. it was a pure smile, a wonderful smile. the kind i suspect only children can make, and with every last bit of their little children hearts. she smiled like i was her teddy bear brother come back with a red bean potong in my hands to give her, only it came out of nothing and it wasn't in exchange for anything. it was that pure. a smile so true and so innocent and so full, a smile that she was pleased to make and which you realised was delightful for her to make. i don't believe i'll ever see a smile like it again. a man might believe in anything when given a smile like that. it was a pure human expression, and it was the best kind of all such expressions.
i think about it every once in a while. it makes me think that all of us are capable of transcending things with what we are, humanly. many things, that we can transcend many things. that with the best that we are, we are capable of transcending so many things.
