Monday, February 9, 2009

The Missing Ingredient: Silent lessons that parents often overlook in their children's formation

Important lessons from a little boy's room

image

I walked into the room, a little boy’s room, and was delighted. The wallpaper bore a light blue stripe and the sturdy cherry bed was neatly made with a blue coverlet.

Two tall, narrow cherry bookcases, standing on either side of the white curtained window, displayed several of the most loved children’s books: Black Beauty, Peter Rabbit, Treasure Island, and others.

Arranged throughout the several shelves were small lead soldiers in battle array, while a smiling wooden Pinocchio sat with his legs
dangling over the edge of another shelf.

Other children’s objects and toys found room among all these.
One wall of the room featured three finely framed and matted prints of knights on horseback from different periods of history in their colorful uniforms.

Two more such prints hung on another wall.  A statue of Our Lady of Victories holding the Child Jesus stood on the cherry dresser.

A beautiful area rug completed the décor.

The room was neat, welcoming, light but, doubtlessly, a boy’s  room. It was also simple and displayed a certain manly austerity.

Above all it was delightfully innocent and balanced. The colors made a statement yet did not overpower the senses. Nothing was so loud that it screamed for the viewer’s sole attention.

The ambiance of the room was “one,” and in that “oneness” I felt welcomed and began to single out the different aspects and objects for appreciation.

I was a guest in the house for the night and my gracious hosts had given me their four-year-old son’s room.  As I sat on the bed and surveyed this room that gave me so much pleasure I understood much about the little boy’s mentality.

This is a little boy that is developing beautifully.

While I know the parents and know their struggles with his natural defects, I also see the reward of their teachings and efforts.

Sitting in that room I also saw, silently depicted, the continuation of those teachings. The order, piety, manliness, balance, innocence and good taste incorporated in the decor are certainly soundless but potent factors in the formation of a young soul.

Every time the boy enters that room, every time he plays in that
room, every time he wakes up in that room, that ambiance speaks to and influences him.

If it spoke and made me understand what I have written, it certainly speaks to him also.

Again, the room conveyed so many qualities to my mind. But the one quality that stood out above all was balance; everything was temperate and in good taste.

Again, nothing screamed out.  There were no huge patches of bright yellow against huge patches of purple, red, and blue as today’s decors are wont to show.

There were no huge superman or spider man posters on the walls, no ugly monsters staring down. There were no clothes strewn all over the place, no disregard of religious objects, so common these days.

Temperance; temperance; the word kept revolving in my mind.

Balance, another word, kept suggesting itself to my thoughts.
Everything today seems so intemperate.

Colors scream, music pounds, decors clamor loudly, images flash forth from TV sets in frantic succession, video games mesmerize with all their violent noise and action, fashions assault human decency...

For the rest of the article, please go here:

http://tfp.org/magazines/crusade_mag_vol_54.pdf

No comments:

Post a Comment