Saving childhood

ONE morning, while driving to work, I met a young mother with her

three kids in a street corner. The kids could have been between ages

three and ten. Each one of them was carrying a bunch of bananas in

varying amounts, with the mother having the biggest load on her head.

    I surmised they were vendors who were not street hawking but were

delivering the goods to different houses. I had to stop the car to get

a close look at them. I was moved to pray and interiorly throw praises

at them. They looked happy, and I thought a certain spirit united them

to find joy in their work. It was truly a blessed sight.

    Though I also thought that the children were too young to be doing

that work, I found consolation in the observation that they were all

smiling and seemed to be enjoying themselves. I was not too worried

about their childhood being wasted and needing to be saved. They all

looked fine. The mother seemed to have done a good job with her kids.

    Truth was it was me who felt some twitch in my conscience. “Here I

am,” I thought, “in a car with aircon and radio, and sometimes

complaining interiorly because of the pressures, the rains or the sun,

etc., and look at these wonderful souls, all happy…”

    This is actually one of those occasions that would spontaneously spur

me to be sorry over some failures and to move on with greater resolve

to do better. And I started to think of the children who have been

spoiled by the so-called “good things” they have in life.

    Yes, I’ve also met a lot of this kind of children. Poor souls! They

actually are drinking everyday some sweet poison without knowing it.

They have all the money they need. They can satisfy all their wants

and caprices. The parents concerned usually replace their presence and

attention with mere money and other resources.

    No wonder, some of these kids become monsters in no time. They don’t

greet others or smile at them. If ever there’s a smile, it’s of the

cynical kind. They are almost completely self-absorbed, lost in their

own world. It would seem the only connection they have to the outside

world is when they need to eat or to go somewhere.

    Recently, I learned a word that could be applied to some of them.

It’s “emo.” It’s still a fuzzy word that’s trying to get a clear

definition, but some of its elements are that it is supposed to refer

to some punk and hard-rock type of youngsters who have lost their

sense of reality to such an extent that they find pleasure in cutting

themselves.

    They put dark lines around their eyes, sport a choppy or spiky

hairdo, tattoo themselves heavily, and ornament themselves with studs

in different parts of their faces and bodies. They are very emotional

and moody kids, with reason almost in flight.

    It’s clear we need to do some rescue operation with respect to these

children. It has to start with the parents, with the family—that they

are functioning properly, fulfilling their responsibilities well.

Otherwise, things will just be a big mess.

    There, of course, are many things to be done in this regard, but

underlying all these should be the serious quest to inculcate piety

proper to all of us in our relationship first of all with God and with

everybody else, starting with parents, elders and other persons of

authority.

    Children are actually wired for piety. They have a natural curiosity

and desire for what is good, true and beautiful. We just have to make

sure that this innate desire is properly engaged and developed, not

ambushed by some cheap if glittery things, and entangled there.

    Christ himself described children as the condition for one to enter

heaven. “Unless you turn and become like children,” he said, “you will

not enter the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this

child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. And whoever received

one child such as this in my name receives me.” (Mt 18)

    What wonderful words! Divine and therefore true and lasting, capable

of bringing us to eternal life! We should do all to keep childhood the

way it is meant to be in the mind of God. There are now elements that

seek to undermine and destroy this nature of childhood.

    We need to be alerted and develop the proper attitude and skills to

promote and defend, and in some cases, save childhood.