be shocked, no doubt; and she will have lost the understanding of death in the natural way — that it is an integral part of life — and been deprived, besides, of a satisfaction that would have given her the right to share in the tragedy!..
It is among the hardest of things to accept the death of someone dear to us, however far we have advanced in emotional maturity and philosophizing. Nor should our little ones learn that death is something terrifying and cold; rather, it is natural, the inevitable end of all mankind. And of course Salwa will not thank her parents for camouflaging the truth; she may rather bear a grudge for this isolation that snatched her away from the heart of the family.
How we face difficulties is, in the writer's view, more important than the event itself; and she offers as an example the parents' attitude toward a feeble-minded child: do they not count him a catastrophe that breaks the back? Whereas they would feel no shame over him if his weakness were in his heart, for instance?.. And then, in what wretchedness do they place the boy's brothers and sisters?
A financial catastrophe is no less important than death; the child must understand it, so that he may feel the privilege of it, and sacrifice even his toys to help his family.
Samir's mother brought her son to the psychiatrist and complained to him of terrifying dreams that woke the boy to walk about in the middle of the night; she could not account for it, for he was among the best pupils in his class, a shining star among his companions, and the champion of sports among his fellows. But the doctor understood that the parents lived in perpetual discord... The mother protested: the matter was far removed from Samir's feelings, for they
kept from him every doubt and suspicion of the badness of their relations — all this to preserve his happiness. But she did not convince the doctor; instead he asked the parents to lay the situation plainly before their son. And so the mother told him the story, beginning with the day she first met his father; and the father came and seconded her words. And do you know what the result was?.. The terrifying dreams melted away and Samir's soul was set at rest; and if pain showed on the features of his face in his waking hours, it had left him in his sleep.
A glance at our age makes it imperative that we be frank with our children, for they contemplate
life on the screen, or hear its whisper from behind the radio!. And the writer persuades you once again to describe to your son the world as it really is — that it is not the home, where the parents' wing shelters him. It is a world of hardships and difficulties which he must face with resolve, and struggle against as best he can, guided to it by his parents' directing finger and its inspiring strength.
And by way of the Atlantic magazine I carry you, Madam, to the Far East, to introduce you to Japanese literature, which has drawn attention of late — and Japanese poetry is my particular subject.
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