First of all, India won Thomas Cup for the first time a few hours ago. Congratulations to all of you on this historic day.
As a child, whenever I saw, heard or observed a father scolding his well-grown adult son, The first thought in my mind was that how could he not listen to his father. The son should always do what his father says. Some of you might have thought the same. That is what is taught to us while growing up in society. Isn’t it? But wait. It’s not how it looks. Now, if you think that My father and I had some fight, and I’m trying to justify that from my end by writing a blog, you are wrong, my friend. Just bear with me for a few minutes, and you’ll get what I want to say.
The father is often the leader in some sense in almost every household. That’s why feminists call it patriarchy and emphasis abolishing it. But I don’t want to talk about that right now as this will defeat the purpose of whatever importance I think I have for this blog. So, a father is often a leader and takes the most of the decisions for a family. He takes care of almost all the external affairs while Mother takes care of internal affairs.
That’s how by dividing their responsibilities to make a happy household and contribute towards making a stable society and fulfil their duty towards the same. We have underestimated the mother’s role in the healthy development of a kid, and we can see its impact quite clearly. Though there are other reasons, it is one of the most important reasons we should think of. Families are the basic unit of society, and those who don’t have a happy family tend to find it in other families. Again, let’s leave the discussion for later.
I watched Pinocchio (1940 movie) when I saw Jordan Peterson explaining the human psychology behind it to his students in the classroom lecture. These are course lecture videos and are available for free on YouTube. So I decided to watch the movie first and lecture later again, as I knew nothing about the references he made in the lecture.
Pinocchio’s father is a woodcarver who makes puppets or toys. Pinocchio was also such a puppet, but his father wished for him to be a real boy. Then one-night blue fairy came and gave him life and conscience named Jimmy Cricket, who could talk to Pinocchio. Later Pinocchio decided to do some adventures on his own and got into trouble, one after others, by not listening to his father. In this journey, he finds himself trapped on a pleasure island, and when he somehow gets out of that, he finds that his father is inside a whale, and now he has to save him.
That was somewhat not a good summary of the story. I know I’m not a good narrator. Thus I’d like you to watch the movie and then think about how it depicts our life in one way or another. You can take the help of Peterson’s lecture to make it easy for yourself to understand. During my stay in my hometown after the lockdown, I met people, observed such scenarios, thought thoroughly of these things and decided to write about them. It is an issue we know exists. But if we won’t acknowledge it, How will we resolve it? Let’s have a look at the same then. Since I will be talking in general, thus for a few minutes, let the feminist inside you read it from the current situation of households in society.
It is a fact that Son has to take the father’s responsibilities in the home. That should happen gradually, right? Again abrupt changes might be injurious (Newton’s second law of motion). Kids’ should be confronted with small responsibilities from an early age. It is how they learn. They do the same work repetitively and get better at it. If you think your kid is ten years old so he can’t clean dishes well, and that’s why you don’t ask him to do it. Then you should know that he’ll get better every time he washes those dishes. So give them responsibilities in bits and pieces.
Parents are always the source for kids to ask for things kids can’t figure out themselves. Parents help them out. But, sooner or later, there always comes a time when kids know more about what they should do than their parents, and that’s the critical point. Now Kids’ don’t have anyone to help out with the things they don’t know. They have to take responsibility for tasks and their failures. Your kid as a Human Being has to be strong for that. Your kids will have to, someday, make arrangements for your funeral. Yes, that’s right. No matter how much you hate to think of this. They have to be strong enough to handle the family. Otherwise, the family will burst out of its weakest point. Do you want that? Not really, I think.
People, in general, don’t know about this, or they don’t think about it. That’s why power transitions make them feel left out. Since they were sole leaders of the household, now the position of leader is by someone else. Now they are not even consulted for major decisions of the house. Anyone would feel bad for this, but not if they know why is it important in reality. Even if they don’t underestimate it, it’s necessary for the better of the family. Such sacrifices are the need of time.
Coming back to Pinocchio, Pinocchio saved his father from the whale’s stomach. What does this mean? Right before that incident, Pinocchio was a kid, and his father was the leader in the house. Now, his father is not there anymore to guide him. He has to make decisions all by himself using his conscious. Now he has to act as the leader, thus Power transition. Pinocchio had to be strong enough to save his father from the whale’s stomach. No father would want to be left there all by himself. But, the father has to let the kid take his position as a leader, but at the appropriate time. Otherwise, the kid won’t be able to save you when you are in there, in a whale’s stomach.
Does Transition of Power look good now? What do you think now? Sleep on it and let me know.
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