Thursday, January 31, 2008

Regarding Children

A recent post at SG's Chronicles got me thinking.. about people's attitude towards and regarding children. I have a niece. She's just six months old, and everyday is a day of delight for her. A day of wonder, filled with new discovery. A few weeks ago, my dad held her up against the glass wall of an aquarium in a hotel we visited, and her eyes opened wide with shiny delight. Her glee was obvious, and most inspiring for me! I guess she's a novelty. Its the first time after some twenty three years that theres a baby in the house. And she's not all that cooey baby. She's a miniature adult. A tiny package of human being with opinions and expressions and a sense of what she will and will not eat! I remember when she was just three weeks old and my mom had to feed her a syrupy multi-vitamin called Vydalin, I think.. Baby would clamp her mouth and eyes tightly shut having pre-empted after some days, the time of the 'tortuous' regiment(I still wonder about the aweful smell and taste of that thing!) She has moods and joys to share at will. She's a whole university for us, in fact, and I think that for the first time, I really might be learning this thing called Life. But then, I also wonder often about women who abort their babies. I am a pro-lifer, and that's as pro-choice as it gets! Choose Life! And yet more about women who abandon their babies. A social worker once told me that she would often visit the hospitals and find that the count of abandoned babies were as high as two hundred (Corrie, Jhb). In fact, she adopted her son there, and relayed her first sighting of him when at three months of age, he would sooth himself with a thumb in his mouth, roll over on his tummy and use his other hand to pat himself (on his head) to sleep!

But then I also remembered my late cousin Reezana. She married at an early age to a man who abused her physically and mentally. They had a little girl. Within a short few years of the little girls birth, she was able to get a divorce. He wanted nothing to do with his daughter. She got married again to a wonderful man named Hassan. Little girl called him daddy, and I remember she was about four and she said to him, 'can I call you daddy? cos my daddy doesnt love me'.. he was wonderful to them, both mother and daughter. About two years later the three of them (and I think the nanny too) were killed in a car crash. Freak accident claimed their lives while returning from a visit to her parents. Heres the freaky coincidence: A passerby from a nearby town was called to help at the scene of the accident. My cousin and her husband were killed on impact. The little girl died in the arms of this helper. The helper, was her biological dad.

It would seem that life has its share of wheels of cause and effect. Opportunities for redemption, and some for pure damnation. We choose our paths; just not carefully enough. Reading SG's post, I thought of Khalil Gibran's treatise on children:

"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 they belong not to you.."

Google Khalil Gibran's the Prophet. Its a more than worthy read!

Here's to the infinite wisdom of lifes little flowers!

With love and magic
kimyaShafinaaz

2 comments:

SingleGuy said...

OMG, that story is beyond freaky! It's when things like this happen that I realise there are NO coincidences in life. Things are the way they are for a reason. What we see as irony, is not necessarily coincidental, it can't be, it must have been pre-ordained. The reason I cannot tell you.

I relate a lot of things to movies that have a message, (I can't help it, movies are the folklore of our generation) and this story made me think of M. Night Shyamalans "Signs". The premise of that story is that there are no such things as coincidences.

Oh BTW, I read your comment intently, and learnt something from it, thank you.

Shafinaaz Hassim said...

hey SG..

i dont believe in coincidence :)
we're playin out our bit in the theatre of life.. the script is writ, and sure we will add our deterministic lot here and there for added flavour.. but theres a grand script no doubt! and lessons will be peppered on our path.. lets hope we dont miss the plot!

..you're welcome. hope the exams going ok for you! atb!