Children are the Cures, the Relativity of Literature

Views about children, from the two great minds, translated…

The Desires of Repetitions

Mang-Juan: we will be having a chat on children today, but why, would Tsi-Ping, want to talk about children?

not my photograph…

Tsi-Ping: in these two years, I’d had, a little girl in my life, my younger sister’s daughter.  I’d watched her, from a picture on the ultrasound, into a real, live crying infant, I felt, that it’s, amazing.  A while back, I’d looked upon everybody I’d bumped into on the streets, and couldn’t help, but imagine them all, in their infancy stages.  A child, probably, like a testing strip, testing what it is, that we’d already, forgotten, and what it was, that we shouldn’t have, forgotten.

Mang-Juan: these eleven years, since I’d started my small forum for children, I’d gotten into contact with endless number of children, I’d gotten to known, the families, the environments, as well as their separate histories, how they’d, affected, the children’s PH levels.  As I’d gotten, closer, and closer, to the innermost cores of these children, I’d felt, free.  I have this thought, perhaps, back when we were, still all just children, we were all, very fulfilled, and self-sustaining, it is growth, that’s made us, become so deprived, so in need of materialism.

And this just stated, how children, are the PUREST forms of human beings, and, just look, at how easily they’d all become, tainted, how easily, innocence were, taken from them?  And, we need to, do something about that, to keep them, as innocent as long, as we possibly can’t, because without innocence, these children will, grow up too fast, and in pain too!

not my photo here…

Being with Humans

Tsi-Ping: the recent years, the developments of technology is advancing, very quickly, and, the children of the digital age seems to, have gotten, a childhood in different format.  My young daughter, before she was born, her mother had already, signed up for a Facebook account for her, at family gatherings, before I even arrived at the restaurants, her mom had already, signed in to FB, with her child inside of her body already.  And, naturally, as my young daughter just started to walk, what accompanied her learning to walk, was, her usage of the iPad, before she was able to speak fluently, she could already, skillfully, operate YouTube, find out the video footages she’d wanted to watch, and put that on, as she started eating her meals herself.  I’d often felt dazed, can’t recall that back when I was a child, I’d not have this sort of hardware and software, how, did I grow up?  The changing of the times is irreversible, and, how, will these children who are born in this era, grow up?

So, this, is truly, scary, you’re a little-older-than-one year kid CAN already operate YouTube?  Wow, are you FREAKIN’ kidding me, and, before these younger generations of children turn six, they will already be learning, how to fix up that leaky faucet by watching a how-to video on YouTube!

This just shows, how quickly the technologies are causing the children, to get exposed, earlier and earlier, and, before we all know it, all of our younger generations’ first words would not be “mama” or “dada” anymore, instead, it would be, “Twitter”, “YouTube”, and “Facebook”…is that what you want, for your babies?  And yet, there’s, NOTHING any of us, can do, to SLOW the age of exposure, is there???  Nope!  Because technologies are, advancing, FASTER, and FASTER, and F-A-S-T-E-R.

Children, are Authors of Themselves

Tsi-Ping: I’m also worried about something else, and maybe, it’s not just about the children.  A book I’d read a few years back, “I Love to Voyeur: the Era of Collectively Falling in Love with Voyeurism and Being Secretly Surveilled”, which had an in depth view of the “oversharing” of information online, it’d also looked into how the parents viewed the images of their own young as their own (and so, the scary part about it is, the parents viewed their young as “fluid assets”), and so, they’d started, spreading photos of their children, endlessly, they’re very, into this rowdy party, and the parents are, getting worse and worse, compared to the supposedly got bliss from being in a party, they’d cared more about if they were in a photograph, showing that they are, happy partying, so they can, post it on FB, so their friends can give them kudos.  And so, the kids can only, act the part, time, after time, again, and again.  Yes, I believe, that in this era of oversharing, what accompanied are, that sense of “I need to put on a show”.  Everybody is forced, onto a stage.  But for children (or adults), they may not be enjoying, this forced show they’re, putting on for the crowd.  And when (subconsciously), these performances started, taking over life, then, the more important things in life, gets, overlooked.

Mang-Juan: to tell the truth, I’m, a bit worried of how easily and quickly, those parents are so eager, to post the pictures of their offspring on Facebook.  I can’t help, but recall the days of my childhood where the photos were, black and white, the parents loved developing so many pictures of the little boys, and, hand them out, to the relatives and the friends.  As I flipped through these old photo albums, those pictures became, thrilling to me.  thankfully, the photos that were spread out were of little boys, and not little girls.  Tsi-Ping, do you have such photographs, out there?

Tsi-Ping: thanks to my parents!  Temporarily, no!  But, I’m feeling, kinda alarmed, if my distant relatives, may have copies of my photos from younger years here, and overseas now………

Mang-Juan: the adults are treating the children as an interesting kind of toy, this had become, the normalcy.  So, the children, belonged to the parents, this value had become, too difficult, to change now.  But when the kids get older, with their separate senses of the self, and wanted to be their own “beings”, that parents would often feel offended.  Think about, when the first time children declined the offers of the parents of “let’s get a picture of us together”, which parent is happy about it?  Actually, they should be glad, that my kid is older.  Isn’t it?

Tsi-Ping: Actually, I think, that all parents should take up writing, then, they have the opportunity, to alter their work, ALL they want to.  As for the children, although, the parents are like the “general authors”, but the children would need more of, a free kind of development, before it me, they, are the writers of their own stories.

So, this showed, how hard it would be, for the parents, to FINALLY come to the senses, that OMG, my Little Jane and/or Little John are, NO longer little anymore, and yeah, there would be, that strong sense of loss, from this psychological separation, but, hey, that is something that ALL parents would need to LEARN to cope with, because uh, children ARE growing up, whether or not we like it!

not my photo…

Thing We Should Learn from Children

Mang-Juan: parents sometimes carried a myth, because they have too many regrets in their own lives, that, is why they’re, making up for all of in on their own young, giving them the best, plan out their futures for them, paved the roads that their children should travel down FOR them, and managed, to finish walking those paths for their children too.  And so, the children became lost, and can’t find their own ways, they can learn to walk independently, actually, if the parents did have a great first half of their lives, they should put their energies, onto their own second half of life, think of ways, to create an ideal way to live out the remains of their years.  Instead of having planned their offspring’s entire lives out for them, and, the bottom halves of their own lives, they’d needed their children to take care of, that would be, just too, tragic. 

Tsi-Ping: This reminded me, what’s coming before us, are not only the declines in birthrate, but also how the aging population is on the rise.  After my little girl had her first debuting appearance, all of the families got into a celebratory mood.  The dozens of aunts and uncles, the dozens of great aunts, great uncles, the little girl had, memorized, she’s only two years, ten months old, and can call them all, by their correct “labels”, because all of those “assigned names” all had that sense of belonging to them.  Everybody, loving this little girl, to the point, of spoiling her, it must be, a sort of a bliss for the little girl, I suppose?  And, having the worries of being a parent, I couldn’t help, but think, that all of her elders (me included), will eventually, wither away, and must bid farewell to the world before she does, and if there are, no more children of the same age group being born now, for her, saying goodbye, to her elders one by one, what a burdensome thing it would be for her?

Mang-Juan: But, to tell the truth, I believe, that the burdensome of saying goodbye pales by comparison to the burdens of taking care of the elders.

Tsi-Ping: I’d also, noted something else, it’s no news anymore.  Toward the elderly in the population, people tend to become more patient, is it because the children represented brand new, and the elderly are closer to deterioration and death?  Or, does it, stem from the innate desires, longing of how we’re all, drawn to the younger, the weaker, and the cute?

Mang-Juan: To tell you honestly, I don’t think, that the burdens of taking care of the aging population is much heavier than the burdens of bidding someone farewell.

Tsi-Ping: Then, what can we all, who are, marching toward our irreversible elderly years, learn, from the children in the world?

Mang-Juan: Like a child, not hung up, on the pains of the past, and the regrets, every day you wake, it’s a brand new beginning, there’s, infinite possibilities.  That, is the cures which children have to offer us, to resolve the pains and sufferings of our entire lifetime.

And so, there’s a lot to consider, about children here, and the writer is correct on there are, a TON of things that we adults, can and should be learning from the young, because they are younger, and, carried that fresher view, more innocent perspective of the world, and we can all, use some of that already gone, childhood innocence from time to time.