Pride, parents and Confucius

These days we are not so creative, aren’t we? I am really sorry, my dear readers, but the final exams are coming (brrr) and I suddenly started to feel the urge of studying.

However, today’s class was cancelled, and since after the class I had an appointment, there was no meaning to go home and then come back. Therefore I called my father if I could stay at his workplace while waiting, and he said yes.

Actually this was the first time I was at my father workplace. As a little child I had been there, but in fact I don’t remember anything. And now… I am so proud of my father because he has an elegant and spacious room, and I could see how he works every day, and I felt that he indeed is an important person.

Do you know why the Korean Wave could hit first and foremost other Asian countries? Because many Asians think that the Confucian ideology and world view, which is almost extinct in their own countries, can be found in Korean dramas. To Koreans, and basically, to the Confucianism itself the family is the base of the society and a person’s own life. Confucius said that the state itself is a big family, where the ruler is the father and the people are his children. If you know your place in a family, you can learn your place in the society more easier, that’s what Confucius thought. It can be right, can be wrong, I don’t know. But Confucius was right about the importance of the family and about the need of respecting your parents.

Sometimes I feel jealousy when my friends tell me that their parents are doctors with high salary, scholars who write books, diplomats who works on international projects. But today I realized that my father’s job is important as well, and despite he is not a CEO, nor a professor-doctor or an attache, I can be proud of him. This proud helps me to respect and esteem him more.

Maybe neither of you live in a Confucian society, but esteem and respect for your parents should be the base. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes probably you feel that they don’t deserve it, but there are always moments and situations, when you can and should be proud of them.

by Alla