A worker
with moderate income had a child who had just started his school-life. It was his greatest ambition in life to own a car. He used to save some money
every month for this purpose. He was granted a loan from the bank and could purchase
a brand-new car. He drove it home and proudly showed it to his wife and child
as if it was his greatest achievement in life. He carefully washed away every
speck of dirt on the painted surface of the car and was enjoying its beauty
when he saw that his little child was scratching on the car’s painted surface
using the sharp edge of a piece of rock. He was furious. He wanted to teach the
child a lesson. In a rage he sprang upon the child, grabbed the stone and
shouting words of curse, hit his fore-finger with the stone many times till his
anger subsided.
The child cried aloud.
His mother rushed to the scene and looked at the child’s finger. It was badly
wounded and broken and was bleeding profusely. The child was rushed to a
hospital. The finger was examined in detail with X-ray imaging and other
investigations. The surgeons lost all hope of restoring the finger as it was
fractured and crushed beyond repair. The only option was to cut off the crushed
finger.
The surgery was over and the child was
admitted to a room in the hospital. Looking at the bandaged hand and the
worried face of his father, the child innocently tried to console his father,
“Don’t worry, Daddy, the finger they cut off will grow back in a few weeks,
just like the nails on the fingers.” The father was so sad to hear these words
that he burst into tears and embraced the child. Later, when he went home, he
examined the spot on the car where his child had made the mark with a stone. He
saw that it was an inscription in illegible letters- “Daddy, I love you.”
He felt extremely sorry for
reacting impulsively to the child’s innocent act of affection and inflicting an
irreparable injury on his tender finger. Anger is a wind that blows out the
light of the mind. There is an old proverb, "He who restrains his anger
overcomes his greatest enemy." There is no excuse for unjustified anger;
it may lead to downfall.
Seneca said, "The greatest remedy for
anger is delay." Let us wait patiently and be slow to react and later we
will be glad that we did thus.
Let us be kind and
tender-hearted to one another, and forgive one another.
............................................................................................................
© By Dr. Babu Philip, Professor, Cochin University of
Science & Technology, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi-682016, Kerala, India, Prof. Mrs. Rajamma Babu, Former Professor, St. Dominic's
College, Kanjirappally and Leo. S. John, Maniparambil, Ooriyakunnath,
Kunnumbhagom, Kanjirappally, Kottayam-686507, Kerala , India
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