I have this friend and he’s having multiple problems with members in his family. His mother and father are constantly calling him out about a situation that was recently discussed within his family.
He, in return, disrespects them by talking back to them and sometimes using profanity. He feels that he grown and doesn’t have to answer to anybody.
Truth be told, you’re never grown enough to disrespect your parents. You have one set of them, and once they’re gone, they’re gone.
I’m usually at the top of controversy when I write columns, but it’s been over a year since my last one. I was writing about an entirely different topic when something came over me and told me to address this.
Many of you may already know this but my mother passed away last August and my father passed away when I was a toddler, leaving me here to fend for myself for the past year.
Most people who know me would never have known this tragic thing happened to me but I have never been the type to be down. I look at life as a long road that carries you from one obstacle to the next. There are occasional stumbling blocks and deaths, but you learn at the same time from everything.
I sometimes find myself down because I can’t pick up the phone and call home because there’s no one on the other end. Yeah, I do have extended family, but there’s nothing like mom and pops.
Imagine the world without parents. Who will you get money from? Who will you call for support. Who will defend you? Who will be there in your corner just because of the sheer love they have for you.
I’ve contemplated this article for months and months because I didn’t know what I wanted to say. It’s hard talking about things that are actually going on in your life.
However, when you see people who are not valuing the people who aided in their delivery into this world, it makes it much easier to testify about what’s going on in your life.
So I guess it hits close to home when people who have a mother and father who are alive don’t respect or appreciate those parents in the way they should be appreciated. I am no big fan of lectures, but I wish I could tell my mother "I love you." I wish I could have a disagreement with my parent. But I can’t. Reality has driven and taken its toll on my life.
I know there are people who are going through what I am, or have been through worse. If so, you understand where I’m coming from. For the ones who are guilty of this, I want you to think about life without that loved one.
Respect your parents, for if they were to die today, no one will ever take their place. Whether you know it or not, there are always people in this great world who would do practically anything for some of the things we are so ungrateful for. Church!
DeEric Henry is a senior mass communication major from Shreveport.
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