These days we’ve all been witnesses of the great power that children have.

It’s been three long months of lockdown for all of us, and we adults have had the capacity to understand what was happening and why. Safety measures, self-isolation and the necessity to stay home and avoid contact with other people was comprehensible to most of us. After three long and slow months, we are now entering the “new normality”, as the media are calling it.

However, if there is a part of the population who has suffered more than anyone has and many times didn’t have the mental maturity to understand, those are the kids. Yet, they have been the ones who have shown what it means to be brave in every sense of the word. Even when at times they didn’t comprehend the seriousness of the situation, when they kept asking if they could go to the park with their friends or why they couldn’t go to school; they have shown us how to deal with something so huge, none of us were ready to deal with.

Children all over the world have taught us what life is all about. When our plans get sidetracked, life stops and the rug from under our feet is pulled… children still show us what it means to have a positive outlook at life.

They have been put in a challenging situation none of them should have to live. Their schedules disrupted, their friends far away, their learning process interrupted and then picked up again with their parents as teachers, who most often had a lot on their plate already. However and regardless of the negativity around them,the glistening in their eyes, the hope in their souls, and that spark of joy and innocence in their hearts has managed to resist. Countless of adults have shared through their social media the ways in which their kids dealt with the situation, each more creative and imaginative than the previous one, and it has been a joy to see.

Moreover, their attitude towards life shouldn’t just be observed and followed in a health crisis. Recently we’ve all seen what has been going on in the US after George Floyd’s death in the hands of a police officer, which has brought to light the systemic racism in that country. The exposition of racism in the US has also made explicit that the US isn’t the only country with racism, social injustice and inequality. Upon seeing bad news all over social media, the one thing that gave me hope was the children that loved their black and people of colour friends. Nobody is born with hatred in their hearts, but with love, friendship and respect; and those are the values that we need to enhance.

After considering the whirlwind of bad news in the recent weeks or, arguably months, today I’m drawn to this cover of the song “Memories” by Maroon 5.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB6yjGVuzVo

Sung by the One Voice Children’s Choir, a children choir from Utah, United States; this cover reminds us that no matter how bad life gets, they will carry the light of hope for all of us.We should be grateful to our kids and honour their integrity, patience and behaviour in these difficult times. They’re the ones who will, one day, make this world a better place.

Now my heart feel like an ember and it’s lighting up the dark, 

I’ll carry these torches for you that you know I’ll never drop.

GLOSSARY
Witnesses: testimonis
Lockdown: tancat d’emergència, mesura de seguretat
Sidetracked: desviats
Disrupted: interromputs
Whirlwind: remolí