Ralph Waldo Emerson once said what you know is more important than what you are taught to believe.

As I sit here watching my son play, I can’t help but think that he knows far more than I. Fresh as he is to this world, he is much closer to the true essence of being. There is a saying that babies are the closest beings to God.  However you define god, the sentiment remains.

I lament the fact that what he knows will soon be overridden by what he has been taught to believe – from the grass is green, to you are a black man. What he is taught to believe will shape his identity, his perceptions, his interpretations, and his interactions. All aspects of his existence in this world will be inextricably linked to something someone once told him. Now, I realize that one of those ‘someones’ will be me. I also know that a lot of what I teach him to believe will conflict with what others try to teach him. (At least, that is my hope).

What he knows cannot be taught. It is instinct. It is intuition. That is far more important than what he will be taught. I hope that if I can teach him to believe anything, it’s that what he knows is more true than anything anyone can ever teach him (including me).