The children would be more vulnerable to feelings of deprivation if all around them their school chums continued to live in that former existence of plenty. I guess some sectors maybe as high as sixty percent of the American middle class remain untouched by the current financial upheavals. We should not rue that fact but take heart in it. It is the strong American backbone and resiliency that will help the minority in major numbers who fell by the wayside bounce back and recover their place in the economic mainstream. With the help of the Good Lord, Abba Krishna, the period of temporary displacement will not be for long.
Being torn from their usual playing grounds and friends would be upsetting for the children. However you can transform such misgivings to an adventure to see and live in a place with a bright side of meeting new friends in a more egalitarian setting or with the prospect of experiencing first hand as a temporary immersion how the destitute people across the tracks live. Get them raring to go to contribute in the task of rebuilding from the bottom up. Butter them up to rise to the challenge. In so doing your manipulating them really redounds to your own empowerment.
Misfortune challenges the mettle of men to survive and test their hardiness to rise in primacy over the earth as Divined by the Almighty Father, the Abba Krishna. It is not logical to make decisions on behalf of unwary children whether to continue with their lives in the face of financial setbacks. From time immemorial men were born with nothing but their birthday skin, the potential of their thoughts, and their strong resolve with faith, hope, and love to lord it over all the creatures on earth. Never forget that we all were carved in the likeness of God and should be allowed to tap all out hidden powers to develop and be reunited with Him.
A prominent man of the cloth once commented that the street children playing in the streets of the poor hovels look so happy compared to the guarded smiles on the faces of the children in the rich enclaves. It is because the wealthy children feel pressured in the race to have more than their peers in the number of new toys and latest gizmos. It is not cool to be left behind. This is an extension of the rat race their parents are embroiled in. As a matter of fact the high expectations of the parents brought upon the child to reap honors in line with their family stature can disturb the young one’s psyche.
In the ranks of the street urchins, the playing field is level and friendly. This brings more fun and delight in the companionship and in the bonding. Empathy and a unity develop through caring and sharing what little they have. Of course, this is not a rationale for poverty and want. The good things like a paradigm switch in harmonious relationships and benevolence with the rest of society and how we view our roles in it as contributors and major players can be learned from the closeness of living elbow to elbow in want with our neighbors. The Abba Krishna did not install man earth with inborn pomp and glory. He was naked on the day he was born with a promise and a potential like seeds to be nurtured.
When I returned with my family to Manila to help my mother who was newly widowed, I was tasked to negotiate with the bank that foreclosed on our ancestral home in a plush upscale village to allow us to sell it so we could recover some of our equity. My siblings were all living abroad and my eldest brother had the beginnings of his business weighing him down farther in the south. The sorry state of financial affairs arose from the lingering illness of my father which not only sucked away his assets but also prevented him from continuing with his profession.
I had to tidy up and spruce up the ancestral home to make it attractive and easier to sell. It was hard to show it with a lived-in clutter so I whisked my family away to a rundown house in the middle of a decrepit neighborhood which lay abandoned as one of the idled properties of the family of my wife, Mona Dolor Leveriza. My daughter left the Philippines when she was only barely two years old and grew in awareness as an American in Staten Island in New York. She was accustomed to the amenities found in our three bedroom unit in Wyndham Loop across the mall.
She cried copious tears when she alighted from the car with her belongings to move in to the shabby looking affair which was going to be our domicile indefinitely. After two years of playing with the children in the neighborhood most of the time with smudges on her face and in faded clothes, which was all the time it took me to sort out the legal gauntlet with the bank and find a buyer, the time came with the help of the Abba Krishna to move back to a nice neighborhood and a private school for her. With the proceeds from the sale I built a smaller family home in partnership with my Mom.
My daughter, Lesley Leveriza, always prayed for a nice enough home that was not necessarily luxurious like the former ancestral home which she lived in shortly upon arrival in Manila. She pained me with her fervent prayer every time it came within earshot. I was proud that the new home I built with the help of the Abba Krishna was humbler but would still exceed her expectation. She cried on the day we had to leave the poorhouse so to speak. I thought it was because she finally got her prayer answered. She turned to me with tears and said, “Dad those two years in that dwelling were the happiest moments I’ve ever known.”
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