So, two weeks ago I was in a hotel in Orlando with my daughter. We had spent a full day at Disney World and were relaxing by the outdoor pool & hot tub. Now my daughter Aliyah is not a very shy person when it comes to making new friends that are her age. If she sees anyone even close to her age, she automatically refers to them as her friend. "Hey daddy - there's my friend, I need to go play with her!"
So, on this particular day, there were a few other kids her age in the pool and they were playing very well with each other. After they had an hour of playing and swimming, it was time to go up to our room, dry off and go to dinner. So I called to aliyah to say that she had 5 more minutes to finish playing. After the five minutes passed, I told her it was time to go. She offered up the normal excuses to try to delay the inevitable. While I was coaxing her out, I asked if she had fun making new friends. Her response completely floored me. She said, "yes...but I'm not finished making them yet".
After an hour of playing together, she still wasn't finished 'making' new friends. How often are we as adults only willing to go through the minimum of the socially accepted rules of engagement when you meet someone new in a public place, such as a hotel pool. We make a general acknowledgment of the others' presence, possibly make a comment about the weather or some other trivial subject. If we're lucky, we will enter into a dialog lasting little more than just a brief couple of minutes. But rarely anything more.
Rarely do we ever seem to take time to really look at and see the other person. To see that they are someone who is very similar to us, likely feeling overwhelmed by life, work, relationships, and all the other stuff life throws at us. Someone who has hopes and ambitions and even fears. Of course I completely understand that we can't have close personal relationships with everyone we encounter, and we don't want to go around exposing all our crap to every person we meet. I do feel, though, that even with the many acquaintances we have, there should still be a certain amount of authenticity exchanged. Maybe we could spend a little more time talking to and trying to truly see those around us, instead of merely pretending that we are only supposed to smile & nod and go on about our personal business.
So, at that particular moment, what was likely an effort for a little girl to stay in the pool a little longer became yet another way in which the innocence of children bring new perspective to the 'experience and wisdom' of us adults.
