Recently the “Kultura” television station broadcasted a program showing how thousands of people had gathered in the biggest auditorium of the central part of a small Italian city. That was not a meeting with, let’s say, an Italian singer that placed 7th in “EuroVision” or some show-business star. People had purchased tickets and were going to listen to a lecture. The lecture was not about the mechanisms for the conduct of free and fair elections, nor was it about the ways for effective struggle against corruption; rather it was about, as the abbot lecturer said, the “meaning of life”.
It sounds kind of anachronistic and naïve for us to go to hear a lecture on the meaning of life. It is even inappropriate to say it. It is appropriate to discuss in detail which star slept with whom or how short the star’s dress was during a film festival, but you feel ashamed when talking about the meaning of life; you feel like saying ‘excuse me for the unnecessary pathos, I won’t do it again’. The abbot’s references made during the program were about children, and putting Christian values in practice in life. These are, according to the abbot, the main axis for the meaning of life. The child, as the priest said, doesn’t need your donations to take care of his needs as much as he needs the transfer of high, spiritual values by the example you set. June 1 is coming up, and although June 1 is not marked in red on the calendar, we all know that that is the day when everyone celebrates International Children’s Protection Day. That is especially the day when the people show their attitude towards children.
On June 1 in Armenia a couple of NGOs which love to receive grants conduct seminars, and television stations show Armenian children drawing with clay in the Opera courtyard. We are certain that on June 1 the wives of Armenian top-ranking government officials will visit the orphanages and clinics for disabled and afflicted children, and give toys to the children that really need them. The emphasis, as always, will be placed on the outer effect and not the “meaning of life”.
However, let’s not forget that we have all been children, even those who are governing our country today, those who occupy various responsible positions, important or less important posts. They all have spent their childhood in Soviet years, have seen the films produced by the Dovzhenko or Odessa companies, as well as “The porcupine in the fog” and many other cartoons that spread the word about hypocrisy, provinciality, forgery, and servility. Obviously at a loss, one of the cartoonists said they should have grown up this way, not as we now see them.
At a time when they used have people memorize the poem “Grandpa Lenin was also a child, small like us, energetic and pretty”, it sounded ridiculous, but the thing was that they were forced to remind society that he had also been a child in order to make the people understand the man who was committing cruel and irrational actions. In other words, he wasn’t someone who had lost himself, and perhaps he was a villain, but at least he has one value and that is that he has once been a child. The attitude towards him eases in some way, at least at the subconscious level. There are many thoughts and aphorisms about children and childhood and, as a rule, they contradict each other. Armenian society especially appreciates these two: “Children are our future” and “Everything for the children”. These are cited the most often because they are thoughts that have already been printed somewhere, and you don’t need to know, let’s say, Exuber or Saroyan. But when you ask an old grandmother what she thinks the cheapest thing in the world is, she will answer: somebody else’s child. It is like that especially in narrow-minded societies with a low level of consciousness and the mother is like that as well. In the system of values of the Armenian family the child is in first place; the dominant part of the care and attention by parents and relatives is reserved for the child. In Armenian families, the attitude towards the child often receives shades of ritual and worship. What we feel obligated to give to the child is nutrition rich in vitamins, clean and modern-day clothes, and a high level of education. According to us, the only way to bring the child nearer to moral values is to send him or her to get a glass of water for us when we are watching erotic scenes in a movie. Our society doesn’t encourage striving for more, for education and consciousness.
When a 12-year old child disappeared after the gunfire in Gyumri on Sunday, the presses suggested a version that, unfortunately, it is quite possible that the child had died from the shots and was hidden somewhere. It is clear what situation his parents are in. But the parents of the lost child, due to their parental love, are not able to help look for him. However, another manifestation of parental generosity is that the son of the mayor of Gyumri, who was one of those who had fired shots, still hasn’t been arrested because mayor Vardan Ghukasyan’s love for his son is keeping the police from arresting his son.
June 1 is Children’s Protection Day, and it is coming up soon. But what is the time when man stops being a child and thus no longer feels the need for protection. The solution to avoid the feeling of hopelessness and fruitless sensitivity is perhaps the purchase of tickets for a lecture on the meaning of life.