Tuesday, May 31, 2016

With both decision and discretion

THIS is the ideal way to behave and to tackle the many
issues and challenges in life. We have to be decisive but at the same
time prudent, driven but also sober, focused on the essentials yet
open to things in general and flexible enough to adapt to varying and
unexpected situations.

            That is why we need to sit down, reflect and meditate,
make plans and strategies. We obviously have to make the appropriate
changes and revisions along the way as the need arises. We should also
have a good grip of the proper priorities we ought to have.

            While our material and natural needs may have to be
immediately attended to, we have to keep in mind that our spiritual
needs and supernatural goals hold greater importance and should be
given the proper attention. We should learn how to cruise in these
tricky waters of the material and the spiritual, the natural and the
supernatural, the temporal and the eternal.

            With all the technological advances we now have, we cannot
deny the fact that we are always tempted to try them, spending
precious time and exploring the plethora of possibilities with them.
The urge to “carpe diem” gets ever stronger, often milking us dry of
our creative juices, etc.

            This is a good development, of course, but only if we are
prepared for it, adequately equipped and clear as to their ultimate
purpose. Otherwise, we would just be blown and swept away by the storm
of novelties and curiosities they offer.

            Thus, while they help us to be more driven in life, they
also ask us, nay, require us to be properly grounded. A certain kind
of sobriety and discretion is needed, since our tendency to be
intoxicated is now always teased and provoked.

            The other day, someone told me how concerned he was since
his high school daughter already has more than a thousand friends on
Facebook, most of them male admirers, and they come not only from the
city and the province, but also from the rest of the country and even
outside.

            That’s a new problem that is asking for new ways of how to
be prompt and effective in dispensing parental guidance, while
observing the requirements of prudence and understanding for the young
one involved. New house rules have to be made to adapt to the new
situation.



            I told him to regulate the time his daughter spends on the
Internet, and to see to it that she studies and prays and that family
gatherings, like eating together, having after-meal get-togethers,
going to Mass together, etc. should be fostered.

            Besides, frequent direct personal chats and bonding
moments should be encouraged between parents and children so that
criteria, suggestions and corrections can be made punctually.

           I myself have to be careful not to spend too much time on
the Internet. Now that I have 5000 friends on Facebook, I have to see
to it that I have a clear idea what to do and how much time I can
spend every time I open my account.

            Obviously, to be able to handle this situation properly, a
certain detachment from things and self-discipline are needed. If we
do not yet have these capabilities, I suggest that we restrain
ourselves strictly from using the new technologies at what they call
“open time.” Or that we need to be closely guarded and supervised.

            But we have to consider this new phenomenon as a good
challenge and occasion to develop many appropriate virtues. We have to
branch out into new ways of cultivating these virtues like decision
and discretion. For sure, the old and traditional forms and ways of
these virtues need to be updated.

            This may involve a lot of effort at discerning, since the
sensitivities and attitudes of the young ones, like the millennials
and the succeeding generations, will definitely be different from
those of the previous generations.

            In this, some collective and consensual study and
consultation would be most advisable, and an increasingly
interdisciplinary approach would have to be resorted to. We need to be
prepared for this new challenge before it overruns us and ruins what
we so far have accomplished through the previous eras and generations.

            We who belong to the older generation should never feel
out of place in this challenge. In fact, we have a crucial role to
play, but we have to realize also that we need to know as thoroughly
as possible the current and forthcoming developments.

            As they say, we should always flow with the times, never
lagging behind. This is how we can keep ourselves young even as our
age advances.

No comments: