I know a young boy who, when he
was around eight, seemed to have already lost his sense of wonder.
One summer night, his mother was
in the front yard, to get some fresh air, when she noticed that the sky was so
gloriously speckled with stars. She called out to her son so he could also
enjoy that awesome sight.
The boy came out, dragging his
feet. His mom excitedly grabbed his hand and pulled him close to her. And then,
she pointed upward and said, “Look! Isn’t that amazing?!”
The boy took one look, turned to
his mom, shrugged uninterestedly, and went back inside—back to the video game
that he had been playing all afternoon.
I witnessed that scene a few years
ago. It saddened me that something, which literally took the mother’s breath
away, solicited nothing but a bored expression from her son.
The boy spent most of his time in
front of the TV, either playing video games or watching—believe it or not—reality
shows about disasters caught on camera. I wasn’t surprised that he often refused
to leave the house because he always thought an accident would happen to him. I
found this a bit funny but, in reality, this child had serious issues.
It made me realize how things were
very different when I was his age. There was no cable TV and no internet when I
was a kid. Video games could only be found in noisy arcades, back then.
When we were kids, my cousin and I
spent our summer breaks in the province. There, we ran around as energetic
young boys our age did. We learned to catch and play with salagubang (June beetles) that we found in mango trees. Then, in
the evenings, we would sit and listen as our grandfather narrated his adventures
as a second lieutenant during World War II. Sometimes, we would lie on the
grassy lawn of our ancestral home to gaze at the night sky.
Back then, we were always in awe
of things.
In contrast, the boy I know has lost
his sense of awe at an early age. Sadly, his parents thought that love meant
giving their son the latest toys and gadgets.
During the first talk of the new
Feast series, “#BLESSED,” Bro James shared that, if a person sees the
extraordinary in the ordinary, simple things will make him happy. He talked
about the two types of eyeglasses we all wear: “Wow eyeglasses” and “Whatever
eyeglasses.”
Wow eyeglasses afford us an
extraordinary view of apparently ordinary things.
Whatever eyeglasses are the
opposite because they act like filters that remove beauty, color, light, magic,
and blessings. They make everything look bland and boring.
The boy in my story was like that.
Even with his roomful of toys, I would hear him say, “I’m bored,” every day.
Thankfully, his parents realized
their mistake. They gradually decreased his gadget time and they started going
out of town as a family. Slowly, the boy changed. He’s still a work in progress;
he still plays video games like kids his age but now, he also plays outside,
enjoys road trips, and especially likes going to the beach. Slowly but surely,
he’s regaining his sense of wonder.