Eyes wide open

“My late mother told me that babies born during her days were different from babies born during my days. During her days babies were born with their eyes closed. While when I was born my mother told me that my eyes were already opened.” The grandmother of my daughter’s classmate told me this while we were waiting for our wards. Her daughter, incidentally, and the mother of my daughter’s classmate is also my high school classmate.

Of course what’s she’s talking about was generation gap and the lost of innocence. When we were leaving the school she was still shaking her head. “Look at their bags, so many things to learn, so many things to put in their heads.” She laments.

Where is their childhood?

My daughter tells things that even surprises me. Facts and recent changes in the school, I was even surprised to find out that our national symbols have gone through revisions. Our oath of nationalism and national bird and national dance and national flower etc. are different than those of my elementary school days.

When a dragonfly entered our house, my daughter was scared. “What’s that?” She shrieked. “That’s dragonflies! When we were your age we used to catch them using brooms made out of coconut stem. We would tie strings on their tales and made pets out of them. We would also catch bees by putting plastic cellophanes on the exit holes of their nest and then tap the nest to force them into it. We would then put the bees in a match box and made radios out of them. To tune in, we simply tap the matchboxes and then we would hear this humming and that’s music for us.”

Of course my daughter may not experience my stories anymore because she has so many things to learn in school.

I agree today’s children’s eyes are open to so may things but they are also starting to close their eyes on so many things too.