While walking in my neighborhood recently, I witnessed something that left me in shock.
I met two little boys. From their dressing, one was arguably from a well-to- do family. The well-dressed boy had a slice of bread in the hand as his counterpart pleadingly-begged for a piece from him.
He was willing to share, but on condition on the ground for the friend to pick and eat. It was heartbreaking seeing the boy torment his colleague. He also threw some fragments in stagnant water to see if the begging friend could eat that too.
It was sad seeing how dehumanizing and vulnerable poverty can make its victims. The ‘beggar’ was vulnerable to this little ‘lord’ who derived power from owning a slice of bread.
This scenario reminded me of stories that have been told of housemaids who get inhuman treatment from their bosses. We have heard of maids who eat beans, but serve meat to their masters.
One wonders what sharing a piece of meat with the maid would do to the housemaster; the fact that she did the cooking notwithstanding. The action of the little boy- turned-lord sadly painted a grim picture of the future should he carry such a trait into his adulthood. To him, sharing is a fairy tale.
That is why he would rather throw crumbs of bread to the ground than give his friend a little whole piece. We need to wake up from the rude reality we are currently getting into. We live in the days of the ‘I’ and ‘my’ syndrome. We would rather give the crumbs from our tables to the dogs than to our dying neighbors or the starving destitute.
We live in a time where the poor are blamed for their status quo. We have branded them as a bunch of lazy beings that want to live on handouts. This is a period whereby spending a day in an air-conditioned office moving from one corner to another on a swinging chair is definitely more energy- straining than tilling the land from dawn to dusk under the scorching sun.
As a parent, how are you handling the aspect of selfishness and individualism in your home? Do you inculcate the spirit of sharing among the children under your care?
These are lessons that do not show results after one or two hours of teaching and emphasis. Rather, these are lessons that need to be modeled to children daily.
Some parents have cast all the care to the wind on the conclusion that their children are simply not good at sharing naturally.
“My child was born like that!” they will console themselves. But Mama, wait a minute; virtues are not born, but cultivated.
It starts with the little things that most times will skip the eye if we are not deliberate on them. Whether it is toys, snacks or the basics of life, it is golden to teach children that sharing is a significant virtue.
We do not give because we have more than enough, but we share to make the world a better place for everyone. The ‘I’ and ‘my’ syndrome must not be allowed to infect our children because it will have a large bearing on how they treat the vulnerable in their generation.
