Our Hideaway

A Letter to a Friend

By Kenneth Acap

The author is a former Columban seminarian from Bacolod City.

Dearest Friend,

It is both in profound gratitude and in slight weariness that I am writing you this letter.

You
see, our world has greatly changed. Every single day, my values are
being challenged by television and other media. I can sometimes
see myself caving in, wanting to have a bite of the morsel offered by
the bohemian society. What we have right now is good. I admit, there is
nothing wrong in change. What I am concerned about, though, is when we
change our established core values to accommodate the fleeting and
dictated trends of false self-imaging.

Our society now
encourages us to buy all kinds of clothes, flashy shoes, posh cars and
the like. Yes, these are good stuff, undeniably. What our society fails
to do is to teach us how to love ourselves as we are. Slowly, in the
world of consumerism, building relationships is jeopardized. Respect
towards others now leans on what the others have and not on who they
are. Our humanity, indeed, has taken the backseat.

It is
truly sad that our young ones are now misled into thinking that they
become valuable to their circle of friends and to society if they
hang out in bars to smoke, drink, and have some casual chat. Moreover,
it is disheartening to observe that our young generation is a consenting
one. Parents may think that their girls are safe when they go to
parties held in their daughters' friend's house. However, this is not
the case for many. The party place mostly becomes a bordello wherein
couples, soon-to-be couples, and perfectly newly met strangers are left
alone in one of the rooms set aside for sensual pleasures. When the act is
over, those involved become ‘superstars’. The boys will be looking up to
the guy and consider him a perfect species of a man. The girl's
dignity, on the other hand, is in shambles. Unthinkable, isn't it?

In
addition, what has happened to our laws protecting our minors from
substance abuse and smoking? Go to a bar and you'll find yourself
surrounded by thirteen- or fifteen-year old kids strutting around like
peacocks with a bottle of beer in one hand and a cigarette securely
clipped between the fingers of the other.

This is
the struggle that we are facing right now - the gradual degradation of
our society in the guise of liberalism and progress. On the contrary, I
think that real progress hinges on our valuing human dignity.

This
letter is a plea to you, my dearest friend, to protect me from the
misinformation of our society, to protect me from myself and from my
unhinged desires and ambitions. I plead to you that you serve as my eye
and my heart if mine become blinded by the spotlight I wish to have or
the pleasure that I desire to achieve. For you are one soul woven into
mine, one person who has seen me in my best and in my worst through the
minutes, days, and years that you have known me. I deeply thank you for
that opportunity to share my life with you as a close friend.

In
turn, I will serve as your eye and heart, too. Furthermore, I wish that
this mutual protection shall be extended to the young souls that we
will produce, the souls of the next generation who will for certain face
a fiercer onslaught of devaluation and dehumanization of our society.

As
of now, my dearest friend, it so nice to enjoy the company of a hot cup
of coffee as my mind is engaged in a bordello of ideas on how to save
our youth and our society.

Kenneth

You may email Kenneth at featherstone_ph@yahoo.com.