We always ask kids, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
But what about right now? What if they don’t have to wait until they are 20 or 30 or 40? What if little people, when given the opportunity, can be as big and as powerful and as influential as any grown up? What if we gave them the space to change the world? If we gave forum to their thoughts and words? If we stopped thinking their naiveté was… well, naive, and instead saw it for what it is — untethered wisdom.
The little people have the dreams. They haven’t let their ambitions be tempered by what other people claim is and is not possible. They don’t accept evil as a necessity. They don’t fear failure unless we teach them to. In the clouds they see trains and animals and beautiful landscapes. In tomorrow, they see promise.
What if the greatest hope and the greatest promise for a better tomorrow lies within the hearts of our little people? And what if we need to let it free and into the world before it gets washed away by time?
Anne Frank would have been 85 today. It’s always amazing to me how one of our history’s greatest optimists was a little girl who had to spend her life hiding away from a bunch of grown ups who thought she wasn’t worthy enough to breathe.
If she never gave up hope, how can we?
Happy Birthday Anne Frank!
Here are some of her best quotes.