More prevalent than you’d think… Every country, every city, every town… every small rural village contain them… (‘Contain’ – in constituent parts; not cages… unfortunately). In small, less densely populated places, like Hogsback; we know them, we see them… and whether you know about that person’s paedophilic tendencies or not; this community tends to turn and look at the birds instead.
Very much like we did during intimate scenes, while watching movies with our parents… admittedly, during movie kisses, I STILL look up at the suddenly stunning ceiling.
The age old question about what we, as humans are capable of comes to mind. I believe that we are all capable of ANYTHING, no matter how immoral. It’s a big reason why I don’t judge people… because given the right (or wrong) circumstances, I might find myself responding in the exact way I judged someone else for. That belief should have made me less arrogant, not less discerning.
On the subject of adults violating children; I have wasted ages of reflection, years of trying to understand, trying to shift from perspective to perspective, looking from historic, psychological and even cosmic spiritually universal sides… and months of attempting to find justifications FOR pedophiles. Enough energy wasted; slightly ashamed my stupid pure heart even tried understanding this and ENOUGH of listening to people who say things like “…Souls have no age…”
Those words echoed in my mind once they left your mouth… Oh so spiritually enlightened; “souls have now age”!?… The problem is not spirituality; our tendency to use its language to dodge material reality is. The child-shaped vessel that soul occupies… the physical body, brain, development, vulnerability and capacity to consent; does not suddenly change just because you invoked the universe.
Even if I could understand this affliction… understanding is not absolution. A 20years age gap is massive when one person is a child. A child cannot carry the responsibility for an adult’s sexual choices. The adult is responsible for laying down and maintaining that boundary. The adult is the one who carries the privilege and the burden to draw the line of appropriacy. A child with no capacity to consent, cannot possibly carry the cruelty of going against it’s own nature.
Yes, I said nature; to our biological cellular core, we inherently know to learn from, to take guidance from or to grow from what we perceive as smarter/ wiser/ more experienced or higher than us. Yes, that does not always mean ‘older’, depending on your frame of reference and the subject matter that interests or benefits you most; it can be anyone. I don’t think that inclination ever goes away; it definitely hasn’t left me. I still prefer to spend my time with older wiser people.
Just like Don preferred to quiz John before going in for a knee replacement; John had been there, done that and knew more about it than anyone who still has original parts. Don knew how fruitless it would have been to ask Mr Original Parts for advice on the subject. One would hope, however, that Mr Original Parts would have the good sense to admit he wasn’t exactly the right person to ask, particularly if Don didn’t know any better.
We can return to the birds, the ceiling… the collective habit of looking away. But what happens when the thing we refuse to look at is not an awkward movie scene but a child who needs an adult to notice.
Compassion for human beings does not require tolerance of sexual abuse and that protecting children takes precedence over protecting reputations, friendships and comfortable worldviews.
Vents, Voices & Vision — October 2026 edition