Babies are fascinating. In the infant stages, human beings grow and develop at a rate that will never again be matched in our lives. Over the course of two to three years, we learn to walk, talk, eat, use the bathroom, and perform many of the other basic human functions that will be the foundation for the everything else we do our lives.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that babies are not as strong as adults. A child's muscles gradually grow over time as their body's grow and their motor skill level increases. The same goes for a child's intellect. The infant brain develops, like a muscle, over time as a result of learning and physical growth. This process of starting small and developing and growing bigger is something that applies to pretty much all aspects of human maturity, with one exception.
The most well trained opera singer in the world can fill a two thousand seat auditorium simply using their voice. These performers sing, on and off, over the course of three or so hours every two to three nights. This is an impressive feat of stamina, but it doesn't hold a candle to what any new born baby accomplishes over the course of just one day.
It is clear that the infant mind and body are not as big, strong, or sharp as the adult version. But from the moment a child enters the world, her voice can echo just as loud as any fully developed adult, most of the time even louder. The baby is not only just as loud as the opera singer, the baby actually has more stamina.
The opera singer produces sound for a variety of reasons. He wants to earn a paycheck, to make music, to wow the audience, or maybe even because he simply loves to sing. The baby produces sound for a much simpler reason. She opens her mouth and cries out to express a basic human desire. She wants to be noticed. She wants to be seen. She wants to be heard and to make her presence known.
The body and the mind are amazing tools, but from the time we are born, it is the voice that is our constant vehicle by which we can make our presence known and felt.
In Genesis, before God entered a human body as Jesus, before he entered the minds and hearts of the prophets, it was God's voice that began the act of creation and made His presence known to His people.
The sad thing about the voice though, is that it doesn't start strong and get stronger. The voice doesn't develop the same way other parts of us do. In fact, the voice takes the opposite track as the body and the mind. A child does not have to be taught to make noise like he is taught to walk. His natural inclination is to make his presence known. As this child grows and develops, we as a culture do very little to nurture that voice. We teach children how to quiet down, how to use their inside voices, follow the rules, and be "civil and polite." I believe there is a place for manners, but does it have to be at the expense of our ability to express ourselves? What this upbringing does, is it replaces our desire to make your presence felt with a desire to blend in and fade back. It replaces expression with compliance. It replaces risk with boredom. It replaces the voice with silence.
Pablo Picasso once said, "Every child is born an artist. The problem is, staying an artist as you grow up."
The voice is the artist's essential tool, and growing up shouldn't mean losing it. All growing up means is that now you can put words and sense into what you're trying to say.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that babies are not as strong as adults. A child's muscles gradually grow over time as their body's grow and their motor skill level increases. The same goes for a child's intellect. The infant brain develops, like a muscle, over time as a result of learning and physical growth. This process of starting small and developing and growing bigger is something that applies to pretty much all aspects of human maturity, with one exception.
The most well trained opera singer in the world can fill a two thousand seat auditorium simply using their voice. These performers sing, on and off, over the course of three or so hours every two to three nights. This is an impressive feat of stamina, but it doesn't hold a candle to what any new born baby accomplishes over the course of just one day.
It is clear that the infant mind and body are not as big, strong, or sharp as the adult version. But from the moment a child enters the world, her voice can echo just as loud as any fully developed adult, most of the time even louder. The baby is not only just as loud as the opera singer, the baby actually has more stamina.
The opera singer produces sound for a variety of reasons. He wants to earn a paycheck, to make music, to wow the audience, or maybe even because he simply loves to sing. The baby produces sound for a much simpler reason. She opens her mouth and cries out to express a basic human desire. She wants to be noticed. She wants to be seen. She wants to be heard and to make her presence known.
The body and the mind are amazing tools, but from the time we are born, it is the voice that is our constant vehicle by which we can make our presence known and felt.
In Genesis, before God entered a human body as Jesus, before he entered the minds and hearts of the prophets, it was God's voice that began the act of creation and made His presence known to His people.
The sad thing about the voice though, is that it doesn't start strong and get stronger. The voice doesn't develop the same way other parts of us do. In fact, the voice takes the opposite track as the body and the mind. A child does not have to be taught to make noise like he is taught to walk. His natural inclination is to make his presence known. As this child grows and develops, we as a culture do very little to nurture that voice. We teach children how to quiet down, how to use their inside voices, follow the rules, and be "civil and polite." I believe there is a place for manners, but does it have to be at the expense of our ability to express ourselves? What this upbringing does, is it replaces our desire to make your presence felt with a desire to blend in and fade back. It replaces expression with compliance. It replaces risk with boredom. It replaces the voice with silence.
Pablo Picasso once said, "Every child is born an artist. The problem is, staying an artist as you grow up."
The voice is the artist's essential tool, and growing up shouldn't mean losing it. All growing up means is that now you can put words and sense into what you're trying to say.
