Recently, I was sitting around with a few friends of mine who could be described as seniors. One guy told us about an old female friend of ours who lived alone and had been found dead in her home.
Her daughter had been calling her for days and when she got no answer she called the police who subsequently visited the house and found her dead.
Almost simultaneously, we all thought that if we died at home we might lie there for months because our children seldom call us and almost never visit us or spend time with us.
And if they did try to contact us after months of non-contact and are told we are deceased, whom would they tell what happened? Our kids don’t know their parents’ friends, they don’t know our religious leaders or what place of worship we attend.
They don’t know anything about who their parents are now, what they like now, how they want to be treated now or how they want to be remembered when they are gone.
Too many children forget everything good that their parents have done for them and cling to things about their parents that they do not like.
I once told my child about all of the sacrifices, compromises and other things that I did for the child. I talked about how the child was never homeless, never hungry, never went without clothes, always had school lunch money, always got Christmas gifts and always had Sunday school donations.
But, now, after they’ve lived the good childhood life and are grown, the response to what parents did for their children is, “It’s not about the money!” Easy to say when you have a good job and Mom and Dad are on fixed incomes or have no money at all.
People wonder why young people are so disrespectful to their parents and other elders. It is because they have lost their minds.
I don’t mean your children are crazy. I mean your mind is your children’s mind. When they stop trusting you, stop looking up to you, stop talking to you, stop listening to you, stop believing in you, stop respecting you and stop loving you, they have lost one of the most important relationships they will ever have.
Throughout human history, people of African descent have learned from their parents and grandparents. We discussed our history, we shared our history and we passed down our history from generation to generation.
How do you think Alex Haley got information to write the book Roots?Nowadays, if it isn’t on Facebook, it isn’t history, it isn’t important. If you can’t hear it on 106 & Park or on the Tom Joyner Show, it’s not worth listening to.
Children, if you want to look for a reason to hate your Mom or Dad, there is no need for an extensive search because parents are not perfect and are born in sin, just like you are.
But if you are looking for a reason to love your parents, all you have to do is look at yourselves. If it wasn’t for your parents’ love and support, you wouldn’t exist, let alone be who you are today.
“The Missing Link” is the time when you refuse to communicate with your parents, the time when you refuse to spend with your parents and the time when you refuse to help your parents in the ways that they helped you when you couldn’t help yourself.
Children who don’t know many of their own relatives are children who don’t talk to their parents. If you hate your parents, you hate yourself.
Lucius Gantt, a political consultant based in Tallahassee, is author of the book Beast Too: Dead Man Writing which is available at Amazon.com. You can like The Gantt Report page on Facebook and contact Gantt at www.allworldconsultants.net
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