The Lady of the Lake
18:09 Dec 31 2009
Times Read: 540
Let’s say it was October, my shoulders were wrapped in a delicate woolen shawl and my mind -well, it was quite dizzy as I walked slowly to the bus. There were they, still waiting: Mrs. V , whom I’d have gladly killed if there weren’t so many psychological and social barriers in this world , five mummies I guess and students. Mrs. V. was pregnant and I envied her belly now, just as much as I hated her, I suppose; she smiled to me from behind the glasses; that’s what she was – a blonde mouse with thick lips and athletic constitution, though a bit shorter than I was; she never matched my softness and my angelic features; what could they possibly find attractive about her?
I greeted them; the mummies looked at me protectively, as if I were one more student, a special one, of course. I simply asked myself if I was ever going to rejoice in anything, let’s say in this trip. I was sorry I had descended from my tower to live among rats and to get scratched along the rough stones of the way; I thought – there could be only two beautiful memorable endings to this: either me drowned into the lake and covered in white veils or pulling her guts out !
And there was the house near the lake, waiting with a hot meal inside. At least this is what we all imagined. I must say I was quite eager to find out about the toilets – and for God’s sake, why are journeys always so closely related to the unpleasant need of taking a leak?
Anyway, we decided to stay in a room, me and Mrs. V., since this was the only option available. So we went downstairs into the large dining room where everybody was and sat together at table. The mummies were very close to us.
“ Such a long trip ! God, I’m starved ! What about you? Still breathing?”
“ Still breathing, yes. Here they come.”
The sound of forks and knives quickly replaced the tired words. The dessert brought me a stain on the dress, the pancakes were delicious.
“ I’d like some wine, you know…”
“ Wine with pancakes? Are you nuts?”
“ Just to end up the whole dinner, you know.”
“ Nope ! No wine ! We’ve got to take care of our students here.”
“ Right ! Unfortunately.”
We spent the next day visiting the whereabouts of the place. As much as I wished to see Mrs. V. stumbling and rolling down in front of me, her small face smashed and bleeding, well, it didn’t happen. If only I could have dragged her behind some bushes and pull her guts out ! “ No, no, come on, don’t get obsessed ! She’s just a tiny mouse. You know that two different persons at two different times compared you to Boticelli’s Venus; she doesn’t match you. Then how come they like her so much? Well, you mean, how come he likes her so much? Because she isn’t interested in him, while you are. Come on, just a tiny pregnant mouse !”
I put the shawl on my shoulders and sat down on the bank, looking over the huge lake. “ Well, my dear princess, it would’ve been so much better here in a room of your own. Right ! Instead, I have to share it with two monsters. Don’t talk like that of an innocent child ! And besides, this woman only wanted what’s best for you. She helped you a lot, she gave you presents… she understands you like him so much. Yes, you’re right, still I wish she didn’t exist. “ I approached the water slowly and threw a peeble in it, trying to grasp the depth of the lake. I wondered what it was like, to sleep on the bottom of it.
I entered the house and waited for dinner with the others.
“ They asked me to stay a little bit more with them after dinner in the living room… I hope I won’t be too tired by then… will you stay too?”
“ Of course I will. Why not? Doing what?”
“ Talking, I suppose… playing cards… stuff like that.”
They tried to engage us in “ Truth or Dare” and we refused at first. But they insisted, claiming that the questions were not out of place and that nobody knew to make the difference between lies and true statements.
“ Are you particularly interested in one of your students?”
“ No, not at all. “
“ Will you have a girl or a boy?”
“ It’s a girl.”
I was glad I wasn’t tired, because I intended to keep an eye on her all the time. I knew that some of them wanted to have sex with me and I didn’t care. No one matters more than the one u couldn’t conquer. If I had had a huge rubber ! Just to rub her face and his face out ! It was a tiresome job to be constantly attentive to evey word or gesture without leaving the slightest clue of my doing so !
Finally we went to bed. And as we crossed the hall I stopped and thought a second.
“ What?”
“ Nothing.”
“ Are you coming?”
“ Yes.”
“ Do you mind if I enter the bathroom first? I’d like to have a shower.”
“ No problem, go.”
I had the nightgown on and was ready to unfold the bed when suddenly I had my mouth covered.
“Sshh !”
My eyes were quickly bound, not too tight. I felt two firm hands on my body and I immediately surrendered to their soft command. I was being kissed and caressed and didn’t give a damn on anything. And so much more… in about a quarter of an hour it was all over. I couldn’t catch a glimpse of the one who ran out of the room before I could unfold the scarf off my eyes.
“ What happened? Did you see a ghost or what?”
“ No, it’s just… nothing.”
“Relax, come on, let’s sleep.”
Breakfast had never been as problematic as then; I didn’t want to go downstairs to the dining room and still I was hungry; at last, tormented by one thousand thoughts, I entered the large room and took my seat near her. The plate was waiting for me. “ Why not look around?” I lifted my eyes and watched them in a very relaxed manner; yes, their faces were all on me and I didn’t give a damn ! I was trying to guess the guilty one by the way they looked; surprisingly, it was in vain. And then, one minute after, they all seemed just like yesterday; nothing had happened.
We talked the same while visiting the whereabouts; it puzzled me to think that they were actually able to hide it on their faces. I felt a sudden wish to drown, I wanted to be found all wrapped in silky veils on the bottom of the lake, my mouth full of water. I suddenly didn’t know what to make out of it; we were between the cold, wet walls of a no name monastery and I remained behind, feeling at ease with my new grief, though instantly remembering that doing so would most certainly betray me and make me vulnerable. So I walked again among them, moving my hips like I always did, not giving a damn. “ Exhibitionist ! He was right, the old man who knew me.”
Lunch was peaceful; I might’ve felt it joyful, it might just have been like a ripe pear fallen on the ground, spreading its nice smell all over… but it wasn’t. Not any longer, not to me. Dark shapes surrounded me, a promise of shudder; I wanted to shake it all off me.
All activities continued like that until evening; I feigned getting involved in them, laughing, smiling, even giving advice when needed; I was torn between hiding it deep inside of me and letting everything out. She noticed it, of course; she always noticed. I felt like talking to a close friend, but my best friend was home. “ It would be horrible to let it out, right? Why should I, if everybody knows it? It’s as clear as daylight. Why make a fool of myself and tell everybody? No, wait ! This is the best thing to do ! If you remain silent, they will think you feel ashamed. But you don’t, actually. You are angry, you are ravished, but you aren’t ashamed. Why should you be?”
We all gathered again at dinner and I tried to discover the guilty one again; it all seemed so useless as I knew there were at least ten of them who were attracted to me. “ Wait ! You’re right, but not all of them would have the courage to do it ! God ! What if… no, it can’t be ! It can’t be ! She was in the shower, for God’s sake ! I know we once talked about having fantasies with women but it was just talk ! And I would’ve certainly had other clues too.”
So there was again an assembly in the living room and they started “ Truth or Dare” just like the evening before. And there came my turn to ask.
“ Was it you who raped me yesterday night?”
There was a sound silence; I would have expected nothing less. I got up and walked to the center, in the middle of them. All of them were there, even the mummies, even the driver.
“ One of you raped me yesterday night in my room ! I don’t know who did it, he bound my eyes and told me to keep quiet, or else… I felt the blade of a knife at my neck.”
“ For God’s sake, miss !”
“ Oh my, it can’t be !”
“ What did you say? Oh , God !”
The entire room was now full of rumour; they all exchanged looks and words and gave me horrified faces. She looked at me as if I had exploded or so.
“Oh, poor you ! Why didn’t you tell me you were raped? Yesterday night? You mean… when? When I was in the shower? That is why you looked so scared? Why didn’t you tell? Who could do this to you?”
“Right, miss; who could do this and why?”
“Oh, no! You are lying! These are your students, miss! These are our children! Why would they do this?”
“ Yes, why? They are all good kids. No, you must be lying. You wanted to spoil our trip, right? You, young and lonely women, always in search of affairs, even with your own students! What kind of model are you for them?”
“ You’ve got no right to talk to me like this!”
“ And who gives you the right to talk like this of our children? Of your students?”
“ I wonder what the headmaster will think of it!”
“ She will think the way she has to think!”
As we all sat again in the bus, I sank into my grief afresh. I saw myself on the bottom of the lake, in a white satin dress, all wrapped in ethereal veils. I refused to think of what was going to come, I just couldn’t pull myself together. She tried to consolate me, the pregnant mouse. To think that she had problems too! Like everyone.
Then there were two big council sessions at school. I was declared a whore, a stain to their honour; I remembered the pancake stain on my dress. They all had miserable grey lives and I had brought a bit of colour; worried or merely amused, they all waited for the scaffold; at first only bits and wood, it rose higher each day in the schoolyard.
“ The whore will die on it! I can’t wait to see!”
“Yes, the whore will end on it!”
And then there was a third council session in the teacher’s room, and the headmaster, a most disgusting spinster, announced the day of my punishment. I stood up and looked into her insect-like eyes.
“ It won’t be me that day! It will be you! You will be beheaded, not me! I swear to God that this will be my revenge! I shall have your little funny name scratched onto that scaffold! You will haunt this place, not me!”
I looked out of the window and saw the scaffold bigger each day; I imagined they took turns the three of them – Mrs. V., the headmaster and him. And yet they all looked at me as if I was already an irremediable ghost.They opened the attic which had stayed locked for years; they intended to keep me there two days before everything happened, so I wouldn’t be able to escape. If he had been my knight he would’ve gladly taken all of it on him. To him I was probably a little girl who didn’t know what she wanted and was frightened; and I was determined to haunt all of them and each of the ones I hated. I still felt the waters wrapping my shoulders; no one would walk like me on the halls; they suffered, I knew they did, because none had my walk.
But there was this woman and her face shone in the evening. She was a warrior, had a lovely daughter and such a determined wish to save me and teach me how to fetch the other half of me from there. And a handsome man stood behind her.
“ He’s your lawyer. He’ll help you out of it. Together we will drag that idiot into mud and have her drowned.” And that was enough, since making life miserable for the three of them was too much to come true. But I wanted and I had sworn revenge and since this was what I had yearned for, then even one of them, the most hideous of them, would do.
I was looking at me.
“ What are you doing here? We’ve been looking for you for days. Come!”
“ Leave me alone! It’s not me the one you’re looking for.”
“ Yes, it’s you. Please, give me your hand and come with us! Don’t you know us any more? Come, let’s go and leave this swamp!”
“ No, go away! I don’t know who you are!”
The strangers looked puzzled and had tears in their eyes. The sound of their resigned steps grew fainter and fainter.
The little child ran away frightened. “ Mum! Mum! I saw a woman…yes, dressed in white, sitting in the reed. She stretched her arm to me.”
“ You must be tired. There are no such things, my darling” , came his mother’s distant answer.
Navajo Story17:59 Dec 27 2009
Times Read: 549
The Tolchini, a clan of the Navajos, lived at Wind Mountains. One of them used to take long visits into the country. His brothers thought he was crazy. The first time on his return, he brought with him a pine bough; the second time, corn. Each time he returned he brought something new and had a strange story to tell. His brothers said: "He is crazy. He does not know what he is talking about."
Now the Tolchini left Wind Mountains and went to a rocky foothill east of the San Mateo Mountain. They had nothing to eat but seed grass. The eldest brother said, "Let us go hunting," but they told the youngest brother not to leave camp. But five days and five nights passed, and there was no word. So he followed them.
After a day's travel he camped near a canon, in a cavelike place. There was much snow but no water so he made a fire and heated a rock, and made a hole in the ground. The hot rock heated the snow and gave him water to drink. just then he heard a tumult over his head, like people passing.
He went out to see what made the noise and saw many crows crossing back and forth over the canon. This was the home of the crow, but there were other feathered people there, and the chaparral cock. He saw many fires made by the crows on each side of the ca-on. Two crows flew down near him and the youth listened to hear what was the matter.
The two crows cried out, "Somebody says. Somebody says."
The youth did not know what to make of this.
A crow on the opposite side called out, "What is the matter? Tell us! Tell us! What is wrong?"
The first two cried out, "Two of us got killed. We met two of our men who told us."
Then they told the crows how two men who were out hunting killed twelve deer, and a party of the Crow People went to the deer after they were shot. They said, "Two of us who went after the blood of the deer were shot."
The crows on the other side of the canyon called, "Which men got killed?"
"The chaparral cock, who sat on the horn of the deer, and the crow who sat on its backbone."
The others called out, "We are not surprised they were killed. That is what we tell you all the time. If you go after dead deer you must expect to be killed."
"We will not think of them longer," so the two crows replied. "They are dead and gone. We are talking of things of long ago."
But the youth sat quietly below and listened to everything that was said.
After a while the crows on the other side of the canyon made a great noise and began to dance. They had many songs at that time. The youth listened all the time. After the dance a great fire was made and he could see black objects moving, but he could not distinguish any people. He recognized the voice of Hasjelti. He remembered everything in his heart. He even remembered the words of the songs that continued all night. He remembered every word of every song. He said to himself, "I will listen until daylight."
The Crow People did not remain on the side of the canyon where the fires were first built. They crossed and recrossed the canon in their dance. They danced back and forth until daylight. Then all the crows and the other birds flew away to the west. All that was left was the fires and the smoke.
Then the youth started for his brothers' camp. They saw him coming. They said, "He will have lots of stories to tell. He will say he saw something no one ever saw."
But the brother-in-law who was with them said, "Let him alone. When he comes into camp he will tell us all. I believe these things do happen for he could not make up these things all the time."
Now the camp was surrounded by pinon brush and a large fire was burning in the center. There was much meat roasting over the fire. When the youth reached the camp, he raked over the coals and said. "I feel cold."
Brother-in-law replied, "It is cold. When people camp together, they tell stories to one another in the morning. We have told ours, now you tell yours."
The youth said, "Where I stopped last night was the worst camp I ever had." The brothers paid no attention but the brother-in-law listened. The youth said, "I never heard such a noise." Then he told his story. Brother-in-law asked what kind of people made the noise.
The youth said, "I do not know. They were strange people to me, but they danced all night back and forth across the canon and I heard them say my brothers killed twelve deer and afterwards killed two of their people who went for the blood of the deer. I heard them say, "'That is what must be expected. If you go to such places, you must expect to be killed.' "
The elder brother began thinking. He said, "How many deer did you say were killed?"
"Twelve."
Elder brother said, "I never believed you before, but this story I do believe. How do you find out all these things? What is the matter with you that you know them?"
The boy said, "I do not know. They come into my mind and to my eyes."
Then they started homeward, carrying the meat. The youth helped them. As they were descending a mesa, they sat down on the edge to rest. Far down the mesa were four mountain sheep. The brothers told the youth to kill one.
The youth hid in the sage brush and when the sheep came directly toward him, he aimed his arrow at them. But his arm stiffened and became dead. The sheep passed by.
He headed them off again by hiding in the stalks of a large yucca. The sheep passed within five steps of him, but again his arm stiffened as he drew the bow. He followed the sheep and got ahead of them and hid behind a birch tree in bloom. He had his bow ready, but as they neared him they became gods.
The first was Hasjelti, the second was Hostjoghon, the third Naaskiddi, and the fourth Hadatchishi. Then the youth fell senseless to the ground. The four gods stood one on each side of him, each with a rattle.
They traced with their rattles in the sand the figure of a man, drawing lines at his head and feet. Then the youth recovered and the gods again became sheep. They said, "Why did you try to shoot us? You see you are one of us." For the youth had become a sheep.
The gods said, "There is to be a dance, far off to the north beyond the Ute Mountain. We want you to go with us. We will dress you like ourselves and teach you to dance. Then we will wander over the world."
Now the brothers watched from the top of the mesa but they could not see what the trouble was. They saw the youth lying on the ground, but when they reached the place, all the sheep were gone. They began crying, saying, "For a long time we would not believe him, and now he has gone off with the sheep."
They tried to head off the sheep, but failed. They said, "If we had believed him, he would not have gone off with the sheep. But perhaps some day we will see him again."
At the dance, the five sheep found seven others. This made their number twelve. They journeyed all around the world.
All people let them see their dances and learn their songs. Then the eleven talked together and said, "There is no use keeping this youth with us longer. He has learned everything. He may as well go back to his people and teach them to do as we do." So the youth was taught to have twelve in the dance, six gods and six goddesses, with Hasjelti to lead them. He was told to have his people make masks to represent the gods.
So the youth returned to his brothers, carrying with him all songs, all medicines, and clothing.
dream01:55 Dec 24 2009
Times Read: 561
As soon as manhood is attained, the young Indian must secure his "charm," or "medicine." After a sweat-bath, he retires to some lonely spot, and there, for four days and nights, if necessary, he remains in solitude. During this time he eats nothing; drinks nothing; but spends his time invoking the Great Mystery for the boon of a long life. In this state of mind, he at last sleeps, perhaps dreams. If a dream does not come to him, he abandons the task for a time, and later on will take another sweat-bath and try again. Sometimes dangerous cliffs, or other equally uncomfortable places, are selected for dreaming, because the surrounding terrors impress themselves upon the mind, and even in slumber add to the vividness of dreams.
At last the dream comes, and in it some bird or animal appears as a helper to the dreamer, in trouble. Then he seeks that bird or animal; kills a specimen; and if a bird, he stuffs its skin with moss and forever keeps it near him. If an animal, instead of a bird, appears in the dream, the Indian takes his hide, claws, or teeth; and throughout his life never leaves it behind him, unless in another dream a greater charm is offered. If this happens, he discards the old "medicine" for the new; but such cases are rare.
Sometimes the Indian will deck his "medicine-bundle" with fanciful trinkets and quill-work. At other times the "bundle" is kept forever out of the sight of all uninterested persons, and is altogether unadorned. But "medicine" is necessary; without it, the Indian is afraid of his shadow.
An old chief, who had been in many battles, once told me his great dream, withholding the name of the animal or bird that appeared therein and became his "medicine."
He said that when he was a boy of twelve years, his father, who was chief of his tribe, told him that it was time that he tried to dream. After his sweat-bath, the boy followed his father without speaking, because the postulant must not converse or associate with other humans between the taking of the bath and the finished attempt to dream. On and on into the dark forest the father led, followed by the naked boy, till at last the father stopped on a high hill, at the foot of a giant pinetree.
By signs the father told the boy to climb the tree and to get into an eagle's nest that was on the topmost boughs. Then the old man went away, in order that the boy might reach the nest without coming too close to his human conductor.
Obediently the boy climbed the tree and sat upon the eagle's nest on the top. "I could see very far from that nest," he told me. "The day was warm and I hoped to dream that night, but the wind rocked the tree top, and the darkness made me so much afraid that I did not sleep.
"On the fourth night there came a terrible thunderstorm, with lightning and much wind. The great pine groaned and shook until I was sure it must fall. All about it, equally strong trees went down with loud crashings, and in the dark there were many awful sounds - sounds that I sometimes hear yet. Rain came, and I grew cold and more afraid. I had eaten nothing, of course, and I was weak - so weak and tired, that at last I slept, in the nest. I dreamed; yes, it was a wonderful dream that came to me, and it has most all come to pass. Part is yet to come. But come it surely will.
"First I saw my own people in three wars. Then I saw the Buffalo disappear in a hole in the ground, followed by many of my people. Then I saw the whole world at war, and many flags of white men were in this land of ours. It was a terrible war, and the fighting and the blood made me sick in my dream. Then, last of all, I saw a 'person' coming - coming across what seemed the plains. There were deep shadows all about him as he approached. This 'person' kept beckoning me to come to him, and at last I did go to him.
"'Do you know who I am,' he asked me.
"'No, "person," I do not know you. Who are you, and where is your country?'
"'If you will listen to me, boy, you shall be a great chief and your people shall love you. If you do not listen, then I shall turn against you. My name is "Reason."'
"As the 'person' spoke this last, he struck the ground with a stick he carried, and the blow set the grass afire. I have always tried to know that 'person.' I think I know him wherever he may be, and in any camp. He has helped me all my life, and I shall never turn against him - never."
That was the old chief's dream and now a word about the sweat-bath. A small lodge is made of willows, by bending them and sticking the ends in the ground. A completed sweat-lodge is shaped like an inverted bowl, and in the center is a small hole in the ground. The lodge is covered with robes, bark, and dirt, or anything that will make it reasonably tight. Then a fire is built outside and near the sweat-lodge in which stones are heated. When the stones are ready, the bather crawls inside the sweat-lodge, and an assistant rolls the hot stones from the fire, and into the lodge. They are then rolled into the hole in the lodge and sprinkled with water. One cannot imagine a hotter vapor bath than this system produces, and when the bather has satisfied himself inside, he darts from the sweat-lodge into the river, winter or summer. This treatment killed thousands of Indians when the smallpox was brought to them from Saint Louis, in the early days.
That night in the lodge War Eagle told a queer yarn. I shall modify it somewhat, but in our own sacred history there is a similar tale, well known to all. He said:
"Once, a long time ago, two 'thunders' were travelling in the air. They came over a village of our people, and there stopped to look about.
"In this village there was one fine, painted lodge, and in it there was an old man, an aged woman, and a beautiful young woman with wonderful hair. Of course the 'thunders' could look through the lodge skin and see all that was inside. One of them said to the other: 'Let us marry that young woman, and never tell her about it.'
"'All right,' replied the other 'thunder.' 'I am willing, for she is the finest young woman in all the village. She is good in her heart, and she is honest.'
"So they married her, without telling her about it, and she became the mother of twin boys. When these boys were born, they sat up and told their mother and the other people that they were not people, but were 'thunders,' and that they would grow up quickly.
"'When we shall have been on earth a while, we shall marry, and stay until we each have four sons of our own, then we shall go away and again become "thunders,"' they said.
"It all came to pass, just as they said it would. When they had married good women and each had four sons, they told the people one day that it was time for them to go away forever.
"There was much sorrow among the people, for the twins were good men and taught many good things which we have never forgotten, but everybody knew it had to be as they said. While they lived with us, these twins could heal the sick and tell just what was going to happen on earth.
"One day at noon the twins dressed themselves in their finest clothes and went out to a park in the forest. All the people followed them and saw them lie down on the ground in the park. The people stayed in the timber that grew about the edge of the park, and watched them until clouds and mists gathered about and hid them from view.
"It thundered loudly and the winds blew; trees fell down; and when the mists and clouds cleared away, they were gone - gone forever. But the people have never forgotten them, and my grandfather, who is in the ground near Rocker, was a descendant from one of the sons of the 'thunders.
Peacock
16:55 Dec 21 2009
Times Read: 566
ONCE upon a time a peacock and a tortoise became great friends. The peacock lived on a tree on the banks of the stream in which the tortoise had his home; and daily the peacock after he had a drink of water danced near the stream and displayed his gay plumage for the amusement of his friend. One unfortunate day, a bird-catcher who was on the prowl caught the peacock and was about taking him away to the market. The unhappy bird begged of his captor to allow him to bid his friend the tortoise good-bye, as it would be the last time he would see him. The bird-catcher allowed him his prayer and took him to the tortoise, who was greatly moved to see his friend a captive. The tortoise asked the bird-catcher to let the peacock go; but he laughed at the request, saying that was his means of livelihood. The tortoise then said, "If I make you a handsome present, will you let my friend go?" "Certainly," answered the bird-catcher, that is all I want." Whereupon the tortoise dived into the water and in a few seconds came up with a handsome pearl, which, to the great astonishment of the bird-catcher, he handed to him. This was beyond his expectabons, and he let the peacock go immediately. A short time after, the avaricious man came back and told the tortoise that he thought he had not paid enough for the release of his friend, and threatened that, unless a match to that pearl was obtained for him, he would again catch the peacock. The tortoise, who had already advised his friend to betake himself to a distant jungle on being set free, was greatly enraged at the greed of this man. "Well," said the tortoise, "if you insist on having another pearl like it, give it to me and I will fish you out an exact match for it." The cupidity of the bird-catcher prevented his reasoning that "one in the hand was equal to two in the bed of the stream," and he speedily gave the pearl to the wily tortoise, who swam out with it saying, "I am no fool to take one and give two!" and forthwith disappeared, leaving the bird-catcher to be sorry ever after for his covetousness.
The bowl
04:43 Dec 20 2009
Times Read: 573
A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and a four-year old grandson. The old man's hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his step faltered. The family ate together nightly at the dinner table. But the elderly grandfather's shaky hands and failing sight made eating rather difficult. Peas rolled off his spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass often milk spilled on the tablecloth. The son and daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. "We must do something about grandfather," said the son. I've had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the floor. So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. There, grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner at the dinner table. Since grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl. Sometimes when the family glanced in grandfather's direction, he had a tear in his eye as he ate alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp admonitions when he dropped a fork or spilled food. The four-year-old watched it all in silence.
One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood scraps on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, "What are you making?" Just as sweetly, the boy responded, "Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and mama to eat your food from when I grow up." The four-year-old smiled and went back to work. The words so struck the parents that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done. That evening the husband took grandfather's hand and gently led him back to the family table.
For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither husband nor wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled. Children are remarkably perceptive. Their eyes ever observe, their ears ever listen, and their minds ever process the messages they absorb. If they see us patiently provide a happy home atmosphere for family members, they will imitate that attitude for the rest of their lives. The wise parent realizes that every day that building blocks are being laid for the child's future.
Let us all be wise builders and role models. Take care of yourself, ... and those you love, ... today, and everyday!
COMMENTS
-