From the August 29, 1978 edition of the Vineyard Gazette by Louise Aldrich Bugbee:

Sometimes I worry about the state of the world, the nation and the Island, especially the Island. Some of these worries could easily push me over the edge and into a depressed condition if important trivial little things didn’t come along to cheer me.

This time it was two lovely teenage girls from New Milford, N.J. They didn’t set out to cheer me. If they had it probably wouldn’t have worked. They raised my spirits merely by being themselves. Being ourselves should be the easiest thing in the world for all of us but adults often fail at it.

A few people have pointed out that I use the word “childish” when I should use “childlike.” They think they are flattering me by saying I’m not really childish. Childish to some adults means unformed, uninformed, peevish, petty and maybe even brattish.

What I mean by being childish is that I’ve struggled for many years to keep the qualities that the young are given and that the serious, adult world takes away from them. Enthusiasm is one quality. In adults it turns to ambition, business sense and even craftiness and greed. Adults try not to waste time and energy on the impossible. To the young nothing is impossible and they have a lifetime to prove it. Most of them are idealists and if they could keep their enthusiasm for a lifetime much good that practical adult thinking relegates to the realm of impossibility might be accomplished.

The young have a natural contempt for authority. There is none of this “It’s the law, or a rule, made by people in authority and wiser than us” stuff. They obey laws of community and home and go by the rules, when they must, only because those who make the laws and rules are bigger than they are. As adults we are often as big and more numerous than the lawmakers but our adult thinking keeps us in line, and changes for the better come slowly.

Unsureness is a childish quality. There is much that the young don’t know and they realize it. It sometimes embarrasses them but at least they never make the mistake of being sure about something that is false and wrong.

The young have a terrific sense of humor, especially young girls. They giggle a lot. I almost made the mistake of adults when someone said of the two teenage girls that gave me hope for the future, “They are at the silly stage.“ Because I’ve hung onto all the childishness I could, I was saved from that mistake. I remembered by own silly stage which never really left me. Adults miss a lot of good healthy amusement because we are told we don’t laugh at people, we don’t laugh at serious things, we don’t laugh at ourselves, we don’t laugh over nothing at all just because we feel like laughing.

I didn’t giggle with the girls. I remembered and understood and joined them in spirit. I chuckled quietly to myself and felt good inside. I controlled myself because youth is precious, youth is exclusive, other adults have set the pattern for the behavior of other adults. It wouldn’t have been any fun for the girls if I had joined them.

I’m very grateful to the friend who invited me to the Harbor View in Edgartown for a tasty, elegantly served meal. If I weren’t somewhat childish I’d leave it at that, write a proper thank you note for the lovely evening and say no more. Instead I’ll thank my hostess for sharing for the evening Rachela and Cristy, who gave me back my faith in the eventual improvement of the world, the country and the Island.

We are born with these abilities to improve things and the same qualities can still be found in some of today’s young. Sometime some of us are going to hang onto our ideals, our belief in the impossible and make it possible.

To be childish is to be simple and direct. The young can’t understand how adults can have one corner of their minds for ideals and another for action. Neither can I. That makes for a lot of confusion and what seems to my childish mind to be dishonesty. At times, when I can’t bring my action up to my high ideals, I’ve even lowered my ideals to match my actions.

I do that about war these days. I’ve stopped writing angry, threatening letters to congressmen when they vote billions of tax dollars for weapons while mouthing off about the United States being a peaceful nation that never would use the weapons to destroy thousands of people.

Life is a continuing story. None of us can live more than a page or a chapter. It makes our page or chapter more interesting and valuable if we have considered the previous chapters and can anticipate the following chapters.

There are a lot of things I don’t like on my page but I wouldn’t want to turn the pages backward and in any other chapter. We must live on our own page and make it as good as we can. My page was made better by the dreams and giggles of Cristy and Rachela. Life, like any good novelist, doesn’t give away the coming chapters but does give a few small hints of the future.

Compiled by Hilary Wallcox

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