Letters to our Children, second of a series

There are many young people who get spoiled because they fall victims to this triad:

• Too much can lead to over protection, 
• Over protection stifles the mind, and
• A mind that is not challenged takes things for granted

Dr Abe V Rotor
We are writing you after your recollection.  What a strange arrangement. Shouldn't parents write or send gifts to their children on the day of celebration?  We can imagine how you sat down there alone while your classmates were reading their parents' letters, or opening the gifts they received.

This fault can be easily dismissed because people who are bound by love and respect easily find forgiveness.  Lest we forget however, that the very things that bind people could be the same things that can break them apart.  

We have known many a pampered child fail in life.  We have read true stories of friendship gone sour.  What an irony that the very things that set progress could be the very cause of destruction.  So with the cause of break up in friendship, in love, brotherhood, peace.

Taking things for granted on the other hand, can generate similar catastrophic results.  Why many an accident happened from taking things for granted.  A conflagration can be traced to a single matchstick.

What we are telling you is a lesson which we want you to reflect upon, on post recollection. There are many young people who get spoiled because they fall victims to this triad of factors:

• Too much can can lead to over protection, 
• Over protection stifles the mind, and
• A mind that is not challenged takes things for granted

You may be brilliant, but you may not be using this gift well. You may be loved, but you may not be aware that you are not reciprocating properly. You may find the world exciting, but not challenging. You may have many friends but friendship may lead you out of your path of success. You may have many things at fingertip command but you may be passive.  
You will realize as you grow up that failure in life is hidden behind too much of the good life. Rich countries, it is true, provide the good life, but look at the new generation pampered by it. And if we think that nobody is poor in a rich country why is it that there are millions of impoverished people in the US.  How can a genius professor turn into a world terrorist?
On the other hand, how can Helen Keller see the world clearer that most of us who are not blnd? How did honest Abe Lincoln pass the bar when he virtually did not attend law school, and became president of the US? Why did Augustine renounce his rich inheritance just to live a monk's life?

In your post recollection, get a whole sheet of paper. Draw a vertical line at the center and list down on the left column people you know who made it in life the hard way. On the right column, list down people you know who did not make it because they became willing victims of the triad syndrome, 

Where do you place yourself?

Think deep and write your resolution. 

Love,

Papa and Mama 

To Anna Christina, 15 

January 24, 1998