Posted by
Sue on Wednesday, February 21, 2007 6:57:55 PM
02/21/07
The story about the two toddlers in what is now known as the "hood".....
The second "story" my spouse posed to me in the very early years of our life together was the following:
Once in the hood there were two toddlers...the one on the left side of the street was frail, hungry looking, unkept, dirty hair, no shoes, very listless and sickly.
On the right side of the street was the second toddler, well cared for, happy looking, rosy cheeked, full of energy and playing with several of the toys his mother had brought out for him. His mother sat and watched him play in this early summer day...warm, no clouds.
My hubby asked me: if you could only take care of one child, which would you choose? Well, there was no question in my mind, it was a simple choice for a l960's, pants wearing feminist with her own three children, one of them a toddler....in l974. "Why, the one that needs it most, on the left side of the street." I told my spouse that the child that needed the most help, should always be the child you help first!
We talked endlessly over the ensuing years about the Two Men in a Race and the Two Toddlers in the Hood...he never changed his mind but I did. My bleeding heart healed and my intellect began to mature and talk over and today, I would choose the child on the right. Because if no one sees to the continued wellbeing of the healthy and loved child, there will come a day when happy, healthy and loved people will disappear and the world will be left only with unhealthy, unhappy, unloved adults who won't help anyone at all.
I don't precisely remember when I changed my mind, not the exact year or month...but I do definitely remember becoming disheartened by what the country I love so much was becoming. And the most important lesson I learned was that the road to my good intentions when I was a member of NOW and agitating was not paved with gold, but led straight to a world we are facing today. Poverty still exists. People still murder, lie cheat and steal in every single facet of life from home to school to business to politics.
But, what I never saw coming, never, was the hatred that those unhealthy, unhappy and unloved adults have loosed, not only in this country, but in the world. For, in the end, the healthy child helps in life and the unhealthy child hurts others.
As an aside, I have related the story exactly as he posed it to me all those years ago. He never argued his side, but boy, did I! When I started on this post, something it dawned on me: the right versus the left side. Those were his words and today, they are more true than ever before!!