When I became an adult, I put away childish things.

When I was blind, I could not see the suffering.

When I was deaf, I could not hear the cries for freedom.

When I could not walk, I rolled in my own intellectual filth.

When I was mute, I did not speak up for the oppressed.

When my heart was cold, I could not feel.

I could not feel.

Age does not create wisdom.

The original idea is with age, you gain experience and learn from mistakes.

Humanity teaches us again and again, our willingness to commit the same mistakes over and over and over again.

Age does not create wisdom.

Humanity is like a forest.

In a forest, you have life growing at many different rates.

Some fast.

Some slow.

Life progresses to maturity through a broad scale.

Some seeds fall into the earth too early.

The late winter snow kills off the blossoms.

Some fall too late.

The waning sun, the cold earth, the seeds never burst through the ground.

They lay dead, never to see the sky.

We who walk through the forest only see those that were successful.

We don’t think about the tens of thousands of seeds that had potential but were wasted.

A seed in the forest.

I became an adult.

I stepped out of my seed and created a life beyond self.

I opened my eyes and saw that the war between the states had not ended.

I opened my ears and heard the same cry for peace down darkened streets of this nation.

I stood upon my legs and joined the march in the street.

I found my voice and spoke truth to power.

My heart beat in my chest, and I could feel.

I could feel the pain of the confederacy of hate inflicted on my country.

My mind was opened.

I heard a voice call my name.

It said to put away the hate.

Put away my pride.

Put away my will.

Put away the stories given to me by damaged people whose stories were given to them by damaged people.

Put away an evil past and make right a glorious today.

Love asks more, never less of each of us every day.

If we are adults, then it is time to put away our toys in a proper place.

The adults need to tell the children, to find the courage, to say no.

No more.

Every society has had an awakening.

It is not unusual for a people, a nation to realize that their past was a mistake.

To promote, to honor, to defend a mistake in the light of truth is an evil act against life.

To roll in lies, to bathe in hate, to inflict pain with words, acts, or symbolically with statues is tyranny.

The tyranny of man against man.

It must stop.

Put away the past.

Embrace the power of love.

Peace

DFrey