Kids are Kids

There are some things in this world that are universal. I do believe that beauty is objective. Beauty is not so much a matter of taste or opinion as much as it is inherent in certain things. To be sure, there are some things that are socially constructed and environmentally ingrained into people which do not transcend cultures (see the above article about seaweed). However, there are certain elements of the creative world, be they music, scenery, food, art, etc. which are objectively enjoyable or beautiful. We experienced three such things Friday night.

As an end-of-the-week celebration we decided to host a movie night for the new kids (we have 12 kids who just moved here 3 months ago and are all younger than the other kids). Some of them were struggling with homesickness since returning from their trip back to their hometowns for Chinese New Year, so we wanted to cheer them up a bit. It would be difficult to find a kid anywhere on earth who would not thoroughly enjoy popcorn, 7up, and classic Goofy cartoons. In fact, one of the reasons we watched the Goofy cartoons was that I thought it had a Chinese option; it turned out to be Cantonese - so the kids didn’t understand any of the spoken words. I think Mater said it best when he told his friend Lightning McQueen, “I don’t care who y’are, that’s funny.” The video began with a 45 second highlight reel of Goofy best spills and tumbles. If I could have bottled up the steady giggle that persisted from the belly of every child for the duration of that intro it would cure the world of all its ills.

Before moving to our orphanage some of these kids had never had running water, never lived in a house with a real floor, and they all have experienced pain enough for five lifetimes. On movie night you could not have distinguished these kids from any other 8 year old in the world who has it all. Friday night I learned that kids are kids, laughter is powerful, and Goofy is hilarious.