|
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Obenieta: Here’s looking at you, kid!
By Myke U. Obenieta
Sound of Mosaic
It’s a weakness most mothers and fathers often succumb to— that any, if not all, of their kids will go far in the leash of parental wish. They know best, or so they aver in spite of Gibran’s reminder: “Your children are not your children; they are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself...”
Let him be. Though that’s easier said than done for my little man Golli, on his way to turning three, I ought to be thrilled how he’s showing signs of growing up just as stubborn as his Dada and Wawa. He won’t be a pushover, we know. He’d have a mind and heart of his own.
But how far will he go? There goes the rub, both for headaches and heartaches to come, God forbid.
“Ayaw!” thus he often frowns at our filial penchant to make him do as we please. How to disagree without being disagreeable? That’s one lesson we need to impart to him after we learn it by heart ourselves.
In the meantime, we can only shrug, shake our grins off, and call him “KJ” while smothering him with a hug as snug as a straightjacket. Or how come he’s flinching again, mumbling his favorite word: “Ayaw!”
Last week, students at the University of San Carlos echoed my son’s expression of choice. No babe in the woods of enlightenment. Or so they wanted to tell the authorities as they gathered outside the school, not playing coy with their placards: No to political repression. No to state abandonment of education. No to new I.D. system. No to education budget cut.
Though no right-minded father would wish to turn purple in the face of a child’s failing grade, who’s not proud to have kids alert of their individual rights and brave enough to raise their voices apart from the pipsqueak of the tractable herd?
With the perfect roundness of his shaved head, my son Golli— who giggles at the tickle of scissors chirping his hairs off— might wonder why some male students at USC seem to have allergies to the smell of barbers. (No, they won’t kowtow to school policies that require, among others, short hair for men.)
But my little man would hopefully understand why my sympathies go for USC president Fr. Roderick Salazar who, in loco parentis, might as well speak on behalf of all parents who can never outgrow their protective stance at their offspring. “It is the policy of the administration. If they can’t hack it, then they are free to leave,” says Salazar who explains the school policies also ensure campus security “because it will prevent outsiders from entering the campus.” Stressing he is open for a dialogue if the protesters want to talk, he demurs: “But I will not bend the policy for them.” Beats me, but could he be as headstrong as a boy like my skull-shaven son now?
In his own time, when he’d have his children to contend with, may my little man take comfort that the heart (with its hoard of affections) can be harder than the head (with its luggage of notions.) And when the student protesters will soon discover with their own children soon, they might as will echo the shudder of our mutual laughter.
(June 21, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
