Sign of Times to Come?

I don’t want to sound like a cracked or broken record (I mean those old black 32 rpm discs that were used in Grundig gramophones. When I hear of ‘sound boxes’ or in more modern term ‘boom boxes’, the picture that forms in my mind is that of such granddad black record disc plates) but perhaps it’s only fair to let you know that Danju’s confirmation went without any hitches.

It seemed a bit odd to see teenagers in North America stand up to respond to quizzes from the Bishop. I thought they said we are a liberal generation. It’s interesting how we tweak definitions and universal beliefs to suit our mood of the day. A bishop was to preside over the day’s event at Mass (‘church’ or ‘worship’to all non-Catholics) and so the confirmandi class was told that as a mark of respect they had to stand when responding to questions from the bishop. Does this smirk of hypocrisy? Yet once the event was over, the same students were free to sit or if they were already standing, were free to have their hands in the often sagging pants (now this issue of sagging trousers will be the story for another day) when talking with those much older than themselves. Do I smell hypocrisy.
I am not about to pontificate (my kids think I’m guilty of that already at home) but growing up back in Nigeria (please don’t tell me it was a different world at that time) you got the scolding of your life if you displayed any mannerisms that were considered disrespectful or infradig... It could range from raising your voice, talking back, daring to eye-ball the older person admonishing you, having your hands in the pockets of your trousers etc. The list was endless. Call it ‘abuse’ of the young person and I’d say I beg to differ! Those were the values that have stayed with some of us up to this point.
I have a Nigerian flag right at the entrance to my home and it ‘tells’ my children that once you step in through the door, you are in ‘Nigeria’ and the rules are different. I believe in giving kids two basic gifts - wings and roots. Wings- so they can aspire to the full potentials of their God given talents. Roots- because they should never forget whom they are and where we come from.
The children and I took another step today in our spring cleaning exercise and it was a pure team effort.
As I write, they are all away at a youth party in honour of their youth coordinator who’s moving to another assignment. Good for them.
What it also means is that I am all by myself, home alone. With the wifey so far away, I am thinking is this how it will all be at some point in life when the children are all grown and gone? It will just be us alone, older and hopefully healthy enough to carry on with the activities of daily living (no swine flu or SARS or any such pandemic. I sincerely hope). Life is indeed a circle. You are born, you go through life and then the hens come home to roost, you go back to your creator.
As I continue to meditate (what else should I be doing at such a time?) I thank you for keeping a date with this blog. Let me go go pick the children from the youth party.

We’d keep sharing.. Good night.