I have just come from the Mass of Ignatius's Feast Day at my sons Jesuit school. Seven hundred boys sang and danced and prayed in a glorious celebration.
And so to my Jesuit friends in Zimbabwe and to the friends of St Ignatius everywhere
HAPPY FEAST DAY
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
A tale of two boys.....and their mothers...
I have today heard to quite different stories about a boy and a teenager.
In the first, related by his mother her twelve year old son asked if she would take him to the savings bank and to Bhadella's, a huge wholesaler in Harare. Curious, she agreed but he didn't elaborate so she just made time in her busy day and ferried him around. He drew $50 (we use united States dollars as currency here) a fortune of his savings - and this boy is saving every penny that comes his way determinedly for a much desired project of his own. He then purchased as many blankets as the $50 would buy. Later that evening he asked his father to drive him around the intersections where homeless people gather and there he distributed his blankets.
This is a boy who also attends my son's Jesuit school. And one who, it would seem, has learned to be a "man for others" in the Jesuit mould. His mother's pride was glorious to behold.
The other story is much darker and harder to hear. It would seem that mass shootings can occur anywhere, even here where there is very strict gun control. It turns out that a young man (well almost), after getting very drunk even though he was under age, went and collected his father's .22 calibre rifle and lay in a ditch later on the same cold and frosty night as the blankets had been distributed and shot at cars going past. On his sixteenth or seventeenth shot he hit a driver, paralysing another young man and causing an accident. He was arrested by the police who had already been advised and were on their way to stop him. Tragically, in the nature of things here he was very badly beaten by the police, who also arrested his father for failing to secure the weapon registered in his name.
So many lives needlessly ruined. I do not know his mother but I gather she has had to do a great deal, trying to sort out this mess, getting lawyers, doctors and the like. My heart aches for her, and all her collapsing dreams for her son. Many people are very angry at what he has done, and there is little compassion to be had.
One act, and there is heroism and glory or cowardice and ignominy. And a mothers life changes in a split second, and she can do nothing to change events that have unfolded.
In the first, related by his mother her twelve year old son asked if she would take him to the savings bank and to Bhadella's, a huge wholesaler in Harare. Curious, she agreed but he didn't elaborate so she just made time in her busy day and ferried him around. He drew $50 (we use united States dollars as currency here) a fortune of his savings - and this boy is saving every penny that comes his way determinedly for a much desired project of his own. He then purchased as many blankets as the $50 would buy. Later that evening he asked his father to drive him around the intersections where homeless people gather and there he distributed his blankets.
This is a boy who also attends my son's Jesuit school. And one who, it would seem, has learned to be a "man for others" in the Jesuit mould. His mother's pride was glorious to behold.
The other story is much darker and harder to hear. It would seem that mass shootings can occur anywhere, even here where there is very strict gun control. It turns out that a young man (well almost), after getting very drunk even though he was under age, went and collected his father's .22 calibre rifle and lay in a ditch later on the same cold and frosty night as the blankets had been distributed and shot at cars going past. On his sixteenth or seventeenth shot he hit a driver, paralysing another young man and causing an accident. He was arrested by the police who had already been advised and were on their way to stop him. Tragically, in the nature of things here he was very badly beaten by the police, who also arrested his father for failing to secure the weapon registered in his name.
So many lives needlessly ruined. I do not know his mother but I gather she has had to do a great deal, trying to sort out this mess, getting lawyers, doctors and the like. My heart aches for her, and all her collapsing dreams for her son. Many people are very angry at what he has done, and there is little compassion to be had.
One act, and there is heroism and glory or cowardice and ignominy. And a mothers life changes in a split second, and she can do nothing to change events that have unfolded.
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