In the book "Mary Poppins Comes Back" there is an extraordinary scene in which a newborn child named Annabel tells Mary Poppins and a wise Starling standing on the windowsill about her journey to birth:
“I am earth and air and fire and water,” she said softly. “ I come from the Dark where all things have their beginnings. I come from the sea and its tides, I come from the sky and its stars, I come from the sun and its brightness—and I come from the forest of earth. Slowly, I moved at first always sleeping and dreaming.
She ends with: “It was a long journey!
A long journey indeed!” said the starling softly, lifting his head from his breast. “And ah, so soon forgotten!”
On this week’s ALL TOGETHER, Paul Raushenbush, who is a new parent himself, investigates the interior life of babies and kids; what we can understand and learn from them, and what parents can do to help nurture them. He speaks to two professors of psychology [more on them below] who come at children and spirituality with very different approaches. Both of them, though, are immensely appealing intellectually, striving to answer the questions of what it means to be human, how babies thrive and the enduring power of love.
Dr. Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley. She is the author of The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds tell us about love, truth and the meaning of Life which is available in paperback.
Dr. Lisa Miller is a professor of Psycology and education at Teacher’s College at Columbia University. She is the director of the Spirituality & Mind/Body Institute at Columbia and the author of a new book The Spiritual Child.
This episode was produced by Katelyn Boguki and edited by Jorge Corona. Please visit HuffPost Religion on iTunes to subscribe, rate and review.
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