Who or what is a parent? Here, I am not talking about the biological relationship between a person and his or her offspring. That, of course, is a matter of fact. But what I would like to highlight is the philosophical aspect of parenthood. A parent to me is not just someone who takes care of his or her children for the continuation of the species. A parent is also someone who provides complete peace of mind. And by this definition, anyone can be a parent to someone without necessarily having a biological relationship.
A teacher could be a parent to his students. A friend too could be a parent if he or she becomes a life guide. And even a government could be a parent to the citizens of a country. The basic idea here is that a parent takes responsibility to burden all worries for someone so that the latter can fully flourish as an individual. For, life as we know can be quite complicated with several challenges. A parent provides an umbrella of protection so that an individual or thing can reach its full potential.
When we water our plants in the garden, we are being a parent to the saplings. When we clean our neighbourhood, we are being a parent to our community by ensuring its health. When we work hard at our jobs, we are also being a parent to the nation by ensuring its economic prosperity. In turn, our employers too can be parents if they ensure a stable, productive livelihood for their employees. Thus, we all can be parents and we all need a parent. Life otherwise, will become too complicated and difficult for any kind of progress. We will be too consumed by worries, problems and difficulties.
The ultimate parent, of course, is the almighty, the supreme cosmic force. It is faith in the existence of this higher power and trust in its nature to maintain a natural law of justice that makes life a little easier for billions of people. I am not saying that difficult times and unfortunate incidents won’t visit people if we believe in the protection of this supreme parent. But it will, nonetheless, give us hope that someone is watching over us.
And that by itself can be a powerful thing. And we must return the favour by being a parent in our own way. Hence, we must all invest in parenthood and devote our energies towards caring. It could be the smallest of things. But if we care for and nurture something or someone we automatically become parents and contribute towards keeping the cycle of life flowing.
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