Naivety, a thing of the past

Overall in our society, being naive is generally spoken of with a negative connotation.

-That person was naive and were financially taken to the cleaners
-A naive woman didn't realize "men only have one thing on the brain" and was taken "advantage" of
-A person in love in naive to think that love can conquer all
-A naive person lacks experience, knowledge, is not sophisticated and overall just doesn't know what they are doing.

I grew up in a very religious based home, but a strong education-based household. There were no questions about whether I would go to college or not because my father was a college professor, my mother a high school English teacher.

Except for the rare item, I believed that people were 100 percent good, but people make mistakes. It's sad to say, my outlook there has changed.

As a journalist I've seen too many stories of unexplained horror such as murder, child abuse, terrible accidents and just blatant disregard for the feelings of others to just believe these are all good people who make the occasional mistake. Basically, now, I do believe that there are just plain bad people, whether they were born that way or conditioned.

Have I lost faith in humanity? Not by a long shot. I can't even count how many times I have seen the good of people. Some examples: A community coming together to morn the loss of a murdered child, animal rescues, and a married couple that proves the theory that true love can exist and last forever.

I will say though that sometimes I wish I could go back to my days of naivety, turn back the clock and close my eyes through parts of it. I wish I could cuddle up to my son without the fear that he could one day walk out that door and never come back. I wish I could believe that I, 100 percent, understand the meaning of life.

I do think keeping certain aspects of naivety is important. I can see the way I treat people change the less naive I become. So, even through the array of blindfolds coming off, remember to sometimes try to keep them on part way when it comes to how you treat people.

That said, personal growth is a good thing, but maybe taking it one step at a time is better than ripping the band aid off at once.