Dear Christian Brothers and Sisters,
if there was ever a time that South Africa needed to hear from you it is now... AS GODS family it is time to let them know we
stand and support them and their Faith in Christ...
Call-in Sunday Dec 14 at 11:00am PST
call-in (347) 826-7353 just to say words of encouragement...
Love letters to South Africa
"The sounds of children at
play"
There are
many, many aspects of culture that many of us take for granted so inherent and
integral they have become within our various cultures. One of these gems is
children!
Children,
yes children and how wonderful, truly wonderful children can be!
Of course
then there are those times when they try us beyond our patience pushing us to
the brink of insanity and many of us not realizing that these beings staring up
at us with those eyes and facial expressions are PROFESSIONAL CHILDREN who are
very skilled in how to irritate parents to get what they want!
Then there
are those many tales, tales that even in adulthood these rascals still keep
those secrets of their behind their parents backs activities, activities that
would fail our hearts at their discovery and activities that remain unknown to
their parents beyond the years of childhood.
We all
remember!
Then there
are those many mornings when we want so desperately to sleep in only to be
awakened by their out of doors activities, laughter, screams, and squeals of
delight, fights and so on! DRIVES US NUTS SOMETIMES but oh how we love the
sounds of children at play!
Children
playing outside with their friends and in the suburbs up and down the streets
as though they were insane!
Children
riding their bicycles up and down the sidewalks almost daring us to not move.
Children on
their skateboards, roller blades and whatever new device they might have
acquired with their pleading eyes and their pleading voices wearing their
parents down to finally purchase these tools of childhood!
Oh how they
push us to madness sometimes! But again, oh how we love them and all these
sounds!
For the
first few months while I was in South Africa I had noticed something very
eerie, it took me a few weeks before I realized that these sounds of children
are not heard any more out of doors except for family outings and such. Mostly
children are confined to homes or small yards or in bigger communities, those
larger secured play areas.
This longing
to hear these sounds of children at play never leaves and is a constant
reminder of the absence of children. Every single day and every single evening
this silence shouts this absence to the very core of one’s existence.
Yes there
are some communities where children can play with a reasonable level of
security but generally no. Many, parents simply refuse to take a chance with
their children's lives and keep them close and within hearing and seeing
distance even in the so called gated and secured communities.
There are
the various recreational parks and reserves that are set aside and guarded but
again, generally no, to dangerous and even on many farms and rural communities
these same cautions are employed and sometimes to no avail.
Parks and
playgrounds as we know them are completely out of the question though they may
be found but in less and less of these communities and then usually within
gated communities.
City parks,
the same, to dangerous, unkempt and throughout South Africa too unsanitary from
the litter and trash and human waste left behind.
And again,
yes there are exceptions to these rules but those parks that people will visit
do so in large groups for security or in attendance of some activity like music
festivals. Rarely if ever, do families go to parks for an outing like we do.
As time went
on my ears and eyes longed to hear these sounds so frighteningly removed from
these South African communities from what we know and enjoy and take for
granted here in the USA with our own children. It was a constant reminder of
the impending death of a culture.
There was a
time when this was not so. South African cities boasted some of the most secure
and finest recreational parks in the world. Places of beauty and gardens that
takes the breath always so beautiful they once were. I still sigh as I
remember.
Remember
these things the next time you are awakened by children at play or the next
time you stroll through a park or stand outside in your yard, wonder, just for
a moment, wonder the tragedy of the absence of the sounds of children at play.
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish
together as fools.
- Martin Luther King,
Jr.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- Martin Luther King,
Jr.
No comments:
Post a Comment