Good Parenting . . .

It's very important that we be good parents. Parenting is the key for children to achieve success in the world. As a professional tutor for many years, I am a big believer in parenting as the ultimate lifesaver for our children. Why do some children succeed and others do not? Why are some children more confident of their innate abilities to achieve the highest goals when others are not? What is the great divide - the answer may lie in the bosom of the parent - the will and courage that they may show to steer their child towards hope and personal enrichment. Some children fail to reach those heights - they might be easily distracted, overcome by fear of being themselves, peer pressure and the like or plain old laziness and what I've come to call as the GREAT ACCEPTANCE (the general, univeral attititude among many children to keep the status quo - that if at first we don't succeed, we can rest on our laurels - that our situation cannot get better; that we cannot unseat ourselves from the cushions of depravity and slackness - that we cannot be proactive - that we cannot seek out universal truths in books and become great, learned men and women who can truly guide civilization towards a rightful path). What are parents to do? Of course, many of us are working parents and may not have time to give the care and attention that our children deserve? Thus, many children fall victim to social ills and are led astray. We must hold their hands - we must give them meaning - teach them higher truths - that life is a gift that should be cherished and that should be valued - that all of us have a higher calling - a spiritual journey that we must undertake to reach our salvation. We must not kick the wisdom of thousands of years to the curb like errant stones - we must embrace that wisdom - wrestle with the demons that reside there - and find light at the end of that long, dark tunnel - that platonic cave of the psyche where the dancing shadows on the walls keep us from seeing the light and glory of the day. I think of my play The Dinner Table, where the father in the story - James Molloy - is the personification of the best parent - the one that gently guides with an even hand and an open heart - one that clears the way for his children through the dark, wooded forests of the unknown with great understanding, charm, courage and gentleness. As we approach these holier months, let us resolve to be great parents - not good - not average - but great parents that our children can look upon with admiration and respect and do likewise or even exceed our own hopes and expectations. Parents bring children into the world and must shoulder the responsibility to give them rightful passage through life - let us not bend to the pressure of this task but embrace wholeheartedly. A child goes out into the world with hopes, dreams and aspirations, carrying the breath of life instilled by their parents that may rise or fall in the world but in the end form a more blessed union with a divine power. We must prove in so many ways to children and ourselves that their journey like a blank slate will be scarred and scratched but in the end through all the turmoil and adversity, the carvings on the walls do not decide their true destiny that is also written in the stars. Never in some many ways that I dedicate this blog to my own mother, a single parent.