On a side street in Amsterdam, in the window of an apartment, someone under 12 years of age has put up a sign: Stop de oorlog.
Stop the war.
The Ukrainian colors crayoned in and the handwriting give the sign maker’s age away.
For a moment I thought of “yes,” and “why not?” and “are you reading this world?”
Somewhere William Sloan Coffin points out that kids always want to save the whales, that this impulse is a good one, that we educate ourselves out of idealism.
It is not, I would suggest, that a child shall lead them but that adults fail to be led by the child.
Even when there are signs all around.