lucky to be coming home again

There's a giant clothing advertisement here that features four young (under 10) children, immaculately dressed and posed almost suggestively. When I see this poster, I am bothered by the barely disguised sexualisation that seems far too early. And then I wonder why we are so much more concerned about protecting children than adults. Certainly, they are born innocent, tabula rasas, impressionable – we want them to be preserved and shielded as long as possible.

So what's the magic age? What's the age when we decide that youth are old enough to be plunged into the dirt? Why don't we try to protect ourselves as much as our children? Must knowledge and exposure to grays mean that adults do not deserve an attempt at purity/preservation? Child porn is not OK but adult porn is? A 40 year-old with a 17-year-old is not OK, but a 40 year-old with an 18-year-old is? An 80-year-old with a 25-year-old?

I know we need to be able to make our own choices. I just don't understand them sometimes. And it seems as though society as a whole only seems to care about aiding the moral choices of minors.

**

Butterflies

Eyes aloft, over dangerous places,
The children follow the butterflies,
And, in the sweat of their upturned faces,
Slash with a net at the empty skies.

So it goes they fall amid brambles,
And sting their toes on the nettle-tops,
Till, after a thousand scratches and scrambles,
They wipe their brows and the hunting stops.

Then to quiet them comes their father
And stills the riot of pain and grief,
Saying, "Little ones, go and gather
Out of my garden a cabbage-leaf.

"You will find on it whorls and clots of
Dull grey eggs that, properly fed,
Turn, by way of the worm, to lots of
Glorious butterflies raised from the dead." . . .

"Heaven is beautiful, Earth is ugly,"
The three-dimensioned preacher saith;
So we must not look where the snail and the slug lie
For Psyche's birth. . . . And that is our death!

–Rudyard Kipling

**

I love dogs because they get excited about sticks. And funky smells. And every other dog in the area. And they're so transparent – tail wags furiously when excited, tail droops when sad. But while I enjoy dogs, I have always loved cats more.

I love cats because they love sunshine and warm laundry. And sleeping. And sneaking up on birds. Mostly though, I'm a cat person because cats make you feel like it's their choice to stay with you. Dogs seem to give away their affection to anything with a hand to feed them and throw their sticks. Also, you never need to fake excitement with cats.