A FATHER and SON STORY
A native
of the rainforest lived all of his life with nature
thinking and knowing that it was the giver of all he needed in his
lifetime.
He respected nature and now knew its ways that were passed from father
to son. He was also doing the same for his own son, passing on the
skills and the way of survival to live in the rainforest, but he also
knew the future was changing and may not be quite the same for his son
as it was for him. The son was also going to
a school run by missionaries during the week and returning at the
weekends to his family. He
was not keen on the separation from his family but the distance by the
river was too much to
travel each day and made it difficult during the monsoons. So they
compromised, and schooling came with separation.
On the weekends, father and son would go out hunting, being the only son and the last born in a family of five girls. The
father, a gentle caring man in his ways, spent as much time as possible
with his son, his pride and joy whom he had every hope of passing on
his bloodline. On a weekend out hunting the father could see that his
son
was not the happy boy he was when out hunting before. After some time
the father
sat the boy down on a fallen tree left by the people who were cutting
down the trees for profit and forcing the indigenous
people to travel
further into the rainforest to hunt for food for their families. He knew
that nature will replant the rainforest and in time will
claim back its ground but not fast enough to be able to hunt in
this area again and maybe not in his own lifetime.
''There is something on your mind that has taken you away from
the hunt.''
The boy holding on to his blowpipe so tight that his
knuckles were turning white answered...
''Father, you tell me to go to
school so I can have a better life for myself and in time also for my own family when that time comes but I also see you happy
in your ways here in the rain-forest and I am between the two worlds as
to where my future lies.''
The father, realizing his son had given
this a lot of thought, tried to answer by finding the words so that his son
would understand and not lose heart said...
''When
you look around you here in the
rain-forest you know you are in a safe place, but it's more than that,
it's when you are in
tune with your surroundings and respect nature, but, no matter where in
the world you are you can still be in a safe place when your mind is
open to your surroundings. The world is
your 'rainforest' now, and education, not just in school, is your
travel ticket to broaden your horizons. That is my horizon, what you see
in front of you, those mountains in the distance that my father and his
father before him saw. To go beyond those mountains was a life-changing
effect on them, some never returned and the ones that did spoke of the
fears they had of meeting different people in different ways and spoke a
language that could not be understood. For a father to expect his son
to fill his place is
not fair to the son but for the father to help his children to broaden
their horizons is very fair in this world.
The
boy, relaxing his hold on the blowpipe and
that smile returning that his father knew like the sun rising in the
morning, realized that the days
he was now spending in the rainforest with his father were all part of
the greater plan of survival. The boy will remember his father in his
rainforest for
these memories will be his guidance and comfort in adult life.