Saturday, May 24, 2008

养儿防老

I was watching TV this morning and I heard a chinese poem. It's a poem written by someone especially for all children. Hmm ok. I seemed to have misrepresented it. Not that it is written for little children, but more for like young adults / adults with old parents. I didnt quite catch the show from the beginning but from the sniplets that I saw, it seemed to be debating about whether it is right for parents to have the mentality that having children is to ensure that someone will take care of them when they grow old.

养儿防老

I found the poem really touching and so appropriate. Perhaps when I have the time I should try searching for it online to see if i can find it for you all.

Some portions that really touched my heart was when it talked about simple things that old people "struggle" with.

Like how some old people are unable to or have "forgotten" how to tie their shoe laces. It then mentions how these "old people" were the very ones that taught us as little children to tie our laces and have tied them for us a million times while we were young.

Or how old people need help to walk as they grow frail. It follows to remind us not to abandon them but to hold their hands and walk with them cos these "old people" were the very ones that taught us as little children how to walk and have helped us up a million times while we were young whenever we fell.

Or (this is something that I believe most of us struggle with, even myself) how old people tend to keep repeating themselves - and a common term used by all is "nagging". It then mentions how these "old people" were the very ones that read to us bedtime stories as we were little children until we fell asleep. How we would keep bugging them to repeat the same stories over and over again. Yet now many times we dun even allow them to finish their sentences cos we've heard it a million times.

God, remind me to always have patience with these "old people", especially then they are my very own parents.

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