Adonis Diaries

And this kid relentlessly asked his questions

Note: A re-edit of the article “The kid that kept asking questions (March 24, 2009)”

The French Colonel Jean-Paul Setau was contributing money to the sick in the under-developed States.  He medically adopted a girl suffering of leprosy from India.

He occasionally visited this girl at the special hospital in France and the nun asked him to deliver spiritual (religious) education for the children.

Jean-Paul prayed and got the answer “go and find out the questions that kids might want answers to”.  Jean-Paul received a list of written questions from kids.

A sample follows:

1)      Where do we go after death?

2)      Why are we afraid of strangers?

3)      Do extraterrestrials exist?

4)      Why accidents occur to even people who believe in God?

5)      What God means?

6)      Why we are born if we have to die?

7)      How many stars in the sky?

8)      Does the Lord listen to those who believe in other Gods?

9)      Why there are poor and sick people?

10)  Why God created mosquitoes and flies?

11)  Why the guardian angel is not close by when we feel sad?

12)  Why we love a few people and hate others?

13)  Who named colors?

14)  If God is in heaven with my dead mother, how come God can still be alive?

And I have a couple of questions of my own.

First, if we are honest and sincere, then which one of the questions can you provide an answer to?

Second, if you indeed can answer a question, then how are you going to translate your comprehension to kids?

As for the first question I have no response; but I do have one for my second concern.

I suggest that you speak in stories and parables as Jesus did, but with a twist. The twist is that your stories are extracted from our current time and civilization such as video games, school life, urban situation, a few trip in nature, computer, internet navigation, biking, movies, pop songs, and what else do kids do to fill up the void and vacuum nowadays.

If you can come up with such kids’ stories that answer a few of the above questions then you can get rich, filthy rich by writing great children books.

Okakura Kakuzo commented in his book “The Tea Ritual in Japan”:

“When I judge someone I am conscious that the tribunal was set up for me: I am judging myself.  We do not see meanness in others: we can only notice our meanness. We can never forgive those who prejudiced us: We believe that we will never be forgiven.  We tell the harsh truth to our brother: We want to hide it in ourselves.  We show our force and power: We do not want others to witness our frailty.

The ceremony of tea drinking is the adoration of what is beautiful and simple. The effort is focused on the imperfect gestures of everyday with the aim of attempting the perfect task.  The beauty is in the complete respect of what is being done. A day offers dozens of opportunities for perfecting awkward tasks.