I was jogging near my home last week and as usual, had stopped for a breather when I finally reached the park area. I saw a middle-aged Indian man who was sitting on one of those exercise machines meant for public usage, casually doing a few sets of lifts on it. Had an army singlet on (the logo, due to my being a policeman, I have no idea belongs to which unit), so maybe he was a regular.

Only seconds after I saw him, a small boy who probably around five or six years old came towards him dribbling a soccer ball. The father asked, "You finish playing already?"

The son said, "No. I want to play with you."

Somewhat awkwardly, the man got up from the machine and directed the boy towards the nearby open space beside the badminton court. And since I happened to be pretty off-form that day, I decided to watch the father-son play for awhile.

The game was a simple one of passing, father kicked ball to son - son kicked back to father, and so on. It was quite easy to observe that the father was obviously playing with consideration of his son's ability. Despite this, the son was still able to 'be angry' at the fathers for the slightly more difficult balls that he could not get, and had to run after. I didn't hear what he said when he stomped his feet and threw up both his hands in exasperation. But the basic idea conveyed through the body language was probably "It's your fault."

Once, the ball had flew a bit too high and got into the bushes. The father made a gentle gesture with his hands that signaled, 'take the ball'. So the son tried to, but before an attempt was made and after he had circled around the bushes for sometime, he shook his head and pointed to the bushes, "You take." So the father did.

I know that the above episode is no big deal in itself. Similar stuff can happen everywhere when it comes to relationships like this. Strangely though, there is not much of a fuss made about it.

What I mean by strangely- is that its a relationship where things are the most easily taken for granted. Where the self-centeredness and selfishness of one party can overlooked without pain. Where the injustices to the other party are treated as a norm. Where the sacrifices made by the other party are expected and unappreciated.

What I mean by its not made a fuss about- is that in our era of emo-ness (for the youth at least), those are the things we are frustrated about, get upset about, get angry over and basically rage/bottle up intense emotions over. Be it whether we are on the recieving end of the above mentioned treatment from an organisation (SAF is a good example:P), person, situation or whatsoever circumstance that presents such obstacles to us.

And in that strangeness and no-big-dealness of it all, such a relationship has a silent and consistent kind of beauty. While we are elsewhere, while we are feeling burdens, even while we are comforting others - while we are engaged with the others that both occupy us with the obstacles and help us to resolve those obstacles, we belong.

Sometimes it will occur to us, and then we can feel thankful about being associated to such a unit. Such a unit that is more than a mere whisper of grace, more than a door that is open, more than a fading clue that points to our relationship with God. We might not fuss over it too much. Ironically, the times when we do start to think about such things in terms of a fuss, what happens is usually quite undramatic.



"Because they are my family."
- A Filipino little girl had answered this after a long pause when she was asked why she thought that her family was the one she trusted the most in her life

Labels: Life, muse

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