Dear Friends
The following is an essay written by Marcela H. P. Borges, a 13 year old Brazilian girl, entitled: Important things. I reckon she should be preaching today!
Sometimes people forget what is really important, what is supposed to be their priority. Nowadays, money is the biggest reason for us to do that, we are all crazy about money, we can’t stand the idea of losing money our best friend, our only friend, the one who gives us everything we want. “The Gift of the Magi’s” main idea is about losing, but for a good reason. It can be about other things, not just money, but futile and touchable things which we usually love too much and could perfectly live without. The characters gave up on futility only to please their loved one, which teaches us that what we only need can’t be bought: love, caring, thinking about the others before you, put yourself in the other person’s shoes. I wish that this would inspire people, I wish we could change the way of living in the 21st century. Less people consumed by money, more human beings.
I fear someday people will wake up remembering a terrible nightmare, a nightmare where the evil store sells robots. Mother robots, father robots, you can choose, wouldn’t that be just awesome? It can cook for you, it can clean your room – it can let you do whatever you want, but it will always be an it. A cold it, an indifferent it, a metallic it, a $1, 99 it.
I fear someday schools will be only about learning facts, and nothing else. Wouldn’t that be just perfect? We could throw children into a solitary, cold and scary room, with a computer, and the goal will be obligation to learn. Nobody needs friends, laughter, human warmth, values, that’s not learning, that’s not important. Poor people should become rich, sad people should become rich, depressed people should become rich, it’s so easy.
In my home, I can’t talk about anything with my mother, and of course the reason for this is money. We always start arguing about buying a new air conditioner, a new apartment, and new pyjamas. Believe it or not, she is the grown up one and the one who always wants to buy all these things, the one who lives only for spending money. I don’t! What’s not necessary, for me is not important. Actually, I really feel bad if I spend a lot of money at once, even at the supermarket!
In the story, if love didn’t exist, they would have been able to keep their hair and their watch respectively, their North and their South, their world and their universe. However, along comes love ? money’s enemy. Love stops that selfishness, deletes that, and forgets that. Love is unselfish, it wants our mind only for it, and futility has no place.
I hope I’ll never forget what’s important and become a person obsessed by money!
If there was more love, more concern, less selfish thinking, we could have a better world. We need to be more like Della and Jim, if everybody were up to give up their “important” things for each other, everything would be different. I hope that happens someday!
(13yr) Marcela H. P. Borges
Sunday, 25 April 2010
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