Hope

These days I am getting a new hobby, a new indulgence. It is so much more entertaining than watching TV or whatever. It is watching my nephew Amalan live his first months. Whenever I look at him I get reminded of the haunting lines of Khalil Gibran:

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."

And he said:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

-The Prophet Khalil Gibran

I wish somebody shows this to all parents including mine. Cos the only way this world moves forward is through the spoils of the young. And the only way this happens is through change. Growth is change. Expecting our children to like us is the greatest curse on them. Doing so means we accept the status quo and shut up. That's a sacrilege to the intelligence of the humanity. Hence our children are our only hope. They are a huge opportunity for us to grow because they don't come prepackaged with our stupid assumptions. They come as an empty cup. And it is only to an empty cup the river of life flows forth.

Having said this, I humbly acknowledge that stating the above when I am young is infinitely more easy than been on the other side of the equation and live the talk. J