Maybe since our childhood, our home....
I was with my husband on holiday in southern Italy. It was an all-inclusive holiday, including a fun, dinnertime performance and live music. We all went out to sit at the outside auditorium to watch the preparations, most nights right after dinner. It was here that I became interested in one situation, about which I have thought about many times since.
Children, of every nationality, tried to go out onto the podium. They played as if they were actors and singers. If it hadn’t been for the different languages, I wouldn’t have noticed any differences.
To find the large differences, one had to only look to the parents in the auditorium! Most of the Czechs yelled angerly at their children. Something like: …you idiot, are you trying to break that? Who’s going to pay for it? Come sit your butt down right now, next to me and don’t even move a muscle! Do you hear me?! Do I have to come down there and get you? Trust me, you don’t want me to have to catch you...”
And then the Czech children came, looking ashamed and frightened. Their fun having been spoiled. They sat down and together with their parents, sadly watched the other children, who were pretending to be artists and were laughing and enjoying themselves as they made new friends.
I also observed the parents of the foreign children. How they were proud of their children and how they were having a good time. I felt bad for the Czech children. I wasn’t surprised at all to see them as they tried to escape from their parents and do whatever they wanted behind their backs. Just not on that podium, in front of those watching and the parents...
It’s too bad. Evidently, many of the Czech children were talented at singing, entertaining others and mainly, just enjoying life. They just couldn’t show it.
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