It's funny, as a kid, you think that everything is going to stay exactly the same forever, while simultaneously dreaming about all the things you're going to do when you finally "grow up", all the revolutions you're going to make a reality. You don't question the logic of that assumption, because the innocent childish obstinacy that clouds your notions about the working of the world is rarely thwarted by the adults around you, who think it an amusing trait of children, mollycoddle them into believing utter hogwash (uh, tooth fairy anyone?). Every adult takes a supreme sense of pride in being a wise, dignified, seasoned member of this world when surrounded by thumb-sucking toddlers asking them why the moon couldn't quit following them around. To this, they shake their heads in bored amusement at the utter poppycock-ishness of the question. They smile smugly and feed the poor child more cock-and-bull stories that by this point has presumably turned the child's brain into a sloppy, smouldering, sticky, shapeless mass of pure baloney. 

I digress. My point? We never see the fall coming. We never prepare for the disappointment. We are constantly shocked at the bad stuff that happens to us and others as we grow up, until it shocks us no more. Childhood is the worst deception in the history of deceptions because it allows us to hope for things that can surely never occur. There wasn't any reason to have lied to kids. They're not expecting anything from the world they're born into. Telling them the truth or the fact that you don't know, or that they can't know yet saves them the disappointment of finding out that their imagined reality was a lie. 

So does this mean we stop telling kids stories about glittering, shimmering worlds where ditzy princesses grab random strangers and dance with them without giving a second thought as to criminal-backgrund of the questionable-looking characters who popped up at a pretty inappropriate time? Well, not so fast. Sure, in the real world, the aforementioned stranger is more than likely a convicted serial-killer. Sure, our kids our going to be very disappointed in a lot of people they trust. But they're never going to forget the image of the world that ours could be. They're never going to think, "Oh so this is how it was, is and will be and there's nothing we can do about that". They remember the baloney story of the ideal world, and they know that though there's no such thing as an "ideal world", there's always room for improvement. There's always a place for a little trust and kindness, and no matter how many times you get duped, there's always someone who's going to be worth it.