Filial issue

SOMETHING keeps recurring in my memory, snatches of a tune in a movie I saw eons ago. But being one who loves music but could never carry a tune, I have kept my mouth shut but my mind open.

The tune recurs in my mind each time I think about or read the name of Joavan or Mayor Socrates Fernandez. It’s from a film about someone being a problem to those to those who cared for him or her. Judged from the persistence of the teenager being a problem, there was nothing in him or her that wass like the brat he or she was. Or something that was fun to look at or hear. I think Joavan has become like that to the mayor, who adopted and loves Joavan as well as those who have learned to keep him close to them.

In a situation such as this, the case becomes a domestic matter that has grown into an enormous social problem. This is a filial question that seeks understanding from friends and compassion from society. But because of the seriousness and enormity of the social risk involved, society refuses or is reluctant to be emotionally committed. Where there is need for compassion and understanding from other parents, they tend to be non-committal.

The problem with Mayor Fernandez is that he has no other son he could love and understand. There is the possibility--but we can only guess--that he was deeply instrumental in the “destruction” of Joavan’s childhood because of this.

There was that one child psychologist I read in college that said too much love that could find an outlet only on one other younger son or daughter is gravely suffocating, and hence, harmful. I am sure that many people who know Mayor Fernandez--he is a very religious man whom I met a few times before--consider him a very good man. And they think he does not deserve a son like Joavan.

But who could have foreseen that Joavan would turn out the way he is now. Somewhere along the way, between his childhood and early manhood, the environment he circulated in, unnoticed by Mayor Fernandez, unduly influenced Joavan’s path. It quite surreptitiously changed the direction of his life. So was it the mayor’s fault?

It’s difficult to say at the moment who is to blame for the way the flow of life of Joavan and of his father are unraveling. The society in which they are living in now is looking at them--I like to think--as objectively as possible. After all, there is really nothing it can do so it tends to leave them be.

Perhaps we can all pray to seek the Lord’s guidance. But then, again, there must be someway our society and our goodwill can do to help the mayor solve a problem like Joavan.