Shelter

Today I want to share some thoughts on the word Shelter. Now shelter is one of the most basic needs of man. This is where we are more familiar with. The physical shelter. This shelter is the one that shield us from the elements of the weather. But if u look from another point of view, it actually weaken us in the sense that we have become intolerance to the mildly violent elements of weather. But anyway, why we need to shield ourselves away from the elements of weather because we need to protect our body so that we can function well in the role that we have taken in this society.

There is another type of shelter that I consider quite scary and that is emotional shelter. Let me give a good example of such shelter, over-protective parents. Yes. Our parents provide us with physical shelter and emotional shelter. Now that is their duty to do that for us. But sometimes, because parents are so concerned and loved us too much, they over protect us. When what they should do is to remove this shelter bit by bit so that we can grow to become independent and strong.

Let me give a analogy of what I mean. Supposedly you plant a sapling in your garden. Now to make sure the sapling has a chance to grow into a big tree, to protect it from the harshest element of weather, you build a shelter on top of it. Of course it does not make sense to build a big shelter for a small tree. So a small shelter is built first. But sooner or later they have to remove this shelter on top of us, otherwise the tree's growth would be limited by the height of the shelter. So this shelter have to keep on changing the size and the height so that the young tree can be grown into a sturdy tree that can withstand the harshest element of weather. The initial intention of the shelter was to help the young tree to have a chance of surviving in the harsh weather but in the end has become something that limits the growth of the tree.

Relate this to parenting, no idea about you'll but I have seen some friends who live in a well-protected environment. The parents never build a new shelter to aid the growth of the child, and instead have the same old shelter there to impede the growth. So in the end, their thinking is not mature and the consequence they suffer for their immaturity almost make them could not survive in the harsh society that we work in.

Well, I guess the love of the parents is really something commendable, but like all things, wisdom has to be applied in it so that the tool can be leverage upon for good rather than become something that is bad.

Cheers!