The inner city does come with benefits. When we were younger, we spent most of our waking hours if not in school, down at the park as much as we could anyways.Adjustment to the park was the Avery, a beautiful exotic paradise that housed birds from all over the world. When my mother wanted to escape she would take us to this what I called the bird house. She would sit on the bench inside and my youngest sister and I would explore to our hearts content. There was such a peace and calm about the whole thing, very little caging and I loved to watch nature in balance. The turtles, the birds in flight, and koi swimming under the bridge. This magical place was one of my first lessons in respect for nature. How beautiful the sound of the birds singing , it made you never want to leave.
There was this one black bird of some sort that was caged in the walkway, he was a talking bird , every time I stopped to see him, he would squawk “hello and call me by name”. How does he know my name, I thought how does he know my name? I found it all to be a bit creepy.I went back when I was older to ask the caretaker how he always knew my name as a child. He said his wife had the same name and he taught the bird to say hello to her. I laughed when I think how frightened I was in not knowing. Giving to much credit to a talking bird. Looking back at it all now brings a warm smile to my face.
My very favorite bird at the Avery was the Victoria Crown Pigeon, it looked nothing like the pigeons in the park and I was always amazed that such a striking, beautiful bird, large in stature was related to the common pigeon. They were so calm and adjusted easily to people that they allowed you to pet them. I thought that was so cool. I loved the fact that they didn’t need caged, that you could hold them and allow them free.
My mind was reaching out to remember the good times that were so loosely woven into our days. It made me think of all the sounds that I inherently accepted as buffers to block the unwanted sounds from my life. My most favorite was the sound of the train. The magnitude of the shear strength as the metal on metal and clang and hum to the tracks snapped me up and cradled me , as the purr soothed and calmed my spirit and blocked the never ending arguing and fighting and unwanted sounds.
Evenings were especially difficult, as my parents seem to think, that out of sight meant our ears were absent from the sounds as well. I thought to myself how little gets by children.Children are able to interpret and understand so much more then adults give them credit for. I thought of the current times, were children really smarter then the generation before them ? I believe this era is much more open and children are not only seen at earlier ages but heard. Hopefully we are listening more.....
Silent cries, mask as fear,
children lost, are very near.
2 comments:
I grew up the same way,,,'children should be seen and not heard',,,and I'm thankful the only thing I heard late at night was the whispered lovemaking of my parents.
It's good that you do have some nice memories with your mother in the park. It makes me wonder how many children right now are victims, and are afraid to speak up.
With human fault comes denial, I afraid that to many children are living in abusive situations all over the world and are falling through the cracks of society.
The most obvious cases of neglect are most likely dealt with, but I think there is so many that are
not on the poverty line, so go unoticed.Unfortunately it becomes to late and no longer hidden then it's exploited on in the media.
Domestic abuse, is a wide range of abuse issuses from elderly, to children, to adults.
The problems of abuse have underlying causes and this is what we have to work on within the community to change. Alcohol for some is a sociable drink, for many its the drug that encourages the first steps of abuse, though by far not the only cause of such disruption in a family.
It is not a easy process to repair humanities weak threads. When dealing with such variances, we have a problem of what is acceptable between one culture and another. So what we do is go with the majority as they say" the majority rules" and find the acceptable line to enforce as the norm.
I do know children are in need as well as adults and I am all for finding alternatives, giving people a better choice for their lives, but I also know the old adages were created from life experience and so goes the saying "you can take the horse to the water, but you can't make it drink." A person must first want to change, to seek change. It would be quite "walter mitty" of me to think that this could happen overnight. It took decades to reveal the faults of humanity, its going take a long time to alter and strenthen them.
Some people say they regret their childhood or their life, but I think we are all sent on a certain path for a reason,what do we see, how do we expand upon it and how do we make it better. I hate to think it takes a tragedy to wake people up, but I fear that is so, so many causes from the fish in the sea to global warming, how do we know where to put our energy.
Our future is our children, if the seeds are planted properly and nurtured then they become strong enough to deal with what the future will bring.
There are things that are out of our hands, tornados, flooding, earth quakes, natural disasters can strike at anytime, we are vunerable at the foot of nature. When the world can step aside from greed and see how small the planet really is, then and only then might they come together as one to strengthen this world as we know it. " One does not a mountain make"
Together we can make the world a better place. I am a dreamer, let me take off my "Walter Mitty Glasses".
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