06/20/2024
https://www.tiktok.com//video/7334064583289703711?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7338192265427781126 .................................................................................. This video is a parody, and I laughed so hard. I understand this Mother-son dynamic, because my husband's parents are South Asian, and I have many Asian and South Asian and Muslim friends. In these cultures, Mother and Father often still get the respect they deserve for providing for, struggling to teach lessons and discipline to ever-rebellious children, and for being a supportive family and safe place for their kids.
Tragically, though, the thoughts that this brings to my mind are not really funny, but tragic, and hit home for me very personally. I see so many privileged first world-born kids, especially those whose parents were also born here, and even worse in multi-generational residents, being too entitled and self-centred to respect their parents.
I also see many overly harsh, critical demanding parents, cutting their children down, comparing them to their “superior” siblings or cousins or the neighbour’s kids. We have all been immigrants at one point, so none of us is “entitled” to the blessings we enjoy in our wealthy countries, but often our family relationships are in poverty, more so than those who have little money or possessions.
Many of us could take a lesson from the family unity often seen in the families from other nations and cultures, and if we could take a break from our consumption of material goods and social media and entertainment and amusement and parties, and actually care about others in dire straits of hunger and homelessness in our own backyard and in other countries, perhaps we could see and understand the pain and suffering that is a part of life on Earth for all of us.
These children and often the parents, too when they have lived here for generations, have never suffered through famine or warfare or government coups, or a police state, so they are unaware of the pain and hardship suffered by so many of our brothers and sisters in our world. This leaves their hearts hard and cold, extremely self-centered, and entirely focused on pleasure, social media and financial gain. They still expect their parents to support them, even when they don’t even pay their respects and show up for their aging parents.
May God teach our youth to respect their parents again. Parents have never been perfect and never will be, and kids don’t have to be perfect, either. But a little grace and communication goes a long way toward blessing our parents and our children and continuing in a healthy relationship with one another.
PS. It is not just our families that are suffering, but our bodies as well. In our privileged countries, yes, we may not suffer with war, and some of the societal chaos we see in some of the other countries in the world, but our overindulgence in sweets, alcohol, rich meals and junk food has caused us to suffer in other ways.
Prior to the onslaught of processed and addiction-engineered foods in the 70’s these diseases were rare, but today we see skyrocketing rates of obesity and heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. And now, dementia and Alzheimer’s, which is considered type 3 diabetes.
Whether we change or stay the same is up to us. But we have the power to change our next thought, our next action, our next meal, our next word. And small changes over time can add up to big changes.
Can we take a look at our families, and care for them today?
Can we take a look at our brothers and sisters around the world, and care. to do something to relieve their pain and suffering, their hunger, homelessness and poverty?
Can we take a look at our bodies, and notice them aging too quickly, and decide to do something before we are old and bent, frail and in pain like the seniors with dementia I care for each day in my work?
And can we take a step? One small step in the right direction today. I'm going to try. I will not be perfect. But at least I will take one step. How about you?
229.1K likes, 3218 comments. “Sandal Rangers 🩴”
