Chase of Wisdom

– Well, to be honest, there's one thing that's been weighing on my mind for a long time. In our town, there are funerals happening very often. And it's not because a lot of people are dying, no. It's just that there are too many days of mourning for one person. For example, when someone dies, their relatives provide food for the guests for 100 days straight. And the guests come to read prayers in honor of the deceased. That was the first side of the situation. Secondly, when greeting each guest, the deceased's relatives have to shout and scream, supposedly to show how sad they are about the death of their relative. If you shout at the top of your lungs and scream loudly, then you really love your deceased relative. But if your heart aches and you don't have the strength to stand and shout near the guests, then you didn't love your loved one very much who recently passed away. This is how funerals are discussed among the women in our town. And the last thing I want to describe is that after a person passes away, you need to be dressed in black for two years. You ca

– Wow, thank you so much for this extensive and important information, Grandpa! I didn't know that such things were happening in the town of Lemari. I hope that there will be more people in our society who think exactly like you. And then they will all together make the right decision to conduct funerals in a cultured and correct way.

– I sincerely hope so, too, my granddaughter. It's very valuable that you understand me, Charlotte.

– Of course, I understand you, you're telling the truth, Grandpa! – said Charlotte, and joyfully ran to her grandmother – Alicia Castro:

– Grandma, dearest, I just spoke with Grandpa Meliton, and now I'd like to ask you something. In your opinion, what needs to change in our society?"

– Ah, that's a wonderful question, my granddaughter. I have a very important opinion on this matter. Let me begin from afar. We all know that there is only one Allah, whom we must worship. We all love him and trust him. If our faith is strong, Allah will always protect us from all the bad things that could happen in this world. So, if everything is in the power of Allah Almighty, what are these superstitious people afraid of, who think about useless rules of superstition at every step? For example, people say: "Don't sweep after the sun sets. You might never get rich." What can the broom do? It's just a household item, that's all! Or there are sayings like: "You can't wash clothes on Saturday, it's a bad omen", "A black cat crossed my path! Oh, everything's over now, it's a sign of bad luck!", "Don't kill this spider, it's a bad omen", "You need to make chicken borscht and eat it with seven women so that the baby is born healthy", "Bring a chicken tomorrow. The newborn baby needs to touch the chicken so that he grows up well" and so on and so forth, this kind of nonsense. All this is nonsense, there's no other way to call such a superstition. Let these superstitious people explain to me what these animals and objects of theirs can do! They can't do anything, neither bad nor good. Only Allah can do everything. And if you ask him, he will give you everything you want, if it is beneficial for everyone. That's it! You can't be so superstitious, it's harmful to everyone. I wish, my granddaughter, that these superstitious people would finally understand that their path is completely useless. That's it.

– Amazing! I completely understand you, dear Grandma! I hope that your words reach all the people who mistakenly consider themselves superstitious, – said Charlotte. She hugged her Grandma Alicia, thanked her for such a sincere conversation, and ran to speak to the second grandfather – Sofron Moroco:

– Grandpa, Grandpa, I have an important question for you. Is there anything that you personally would like to change in our society?

– Absolutely, my granddaughter! Look, we all went to school as children. And you will go there soon, too. You know, the system there is that, starting from the first grade, children are forced to learn and simply memorize, for the most part. There's also this exercise among elementary school students – speed reading. Pay attention, not expressive reading, not reading and reasoning about the text, but speed reading. Why is that? Or let's see what else happens. When entering a Higher Educational Institution, applicants need to correctly solve special tests that are prepared in advance according to school textbooks. Once again, we are brought to the point where we simply learn facts. Why, do you think? If all smart children graduate from school with critical thinking skills, it's good for the state itself, isn't it? So why not pay attention to the school education system? Children are forced to learn things they don't want to. And if they don't learn what they're not interested in, they're immediately called passive students, which can have a very bad effect on their self-esteem. You can't treat children like that. Every person has some kind of peculiarity, some kind of talent that needs to be developed. So why not inspire children and help them develop where they are truly interested? Of course, it's not just the school, but parents should also be interested. Someone has to start, right? That's what I've been thinking about for a long time, Charlotte. I want the school system to change in our town. I believe it would lead to a fundamental development not only of our town, but of our entire country.

– That's incredible, Grandpa! Thank you so much for sharing your opinion! I'm going to talk to Grandma Florentina now, – said Charlotte and went to the last interviewee of the day – Grandma Florentina Moroco:

– My dearest Grandma, can you tell me what troubles you about our society?

– Well, last month, my cousin invited me to her grandson's birthday. I went. As soon as I entered their house, all our relatives, and there were about 10 of them, started greeting me. It took more than five minutes. Each relative repeated the same line, which sounded like: "How are you? How are you doing? How are the family members? Aren't you tired? How are your children…?" And I, consequently, answer everyone absolutely the same, even though no one even paid attention to my answer: "Yes, everything is fine with us. Everything is fine, thank you. Everyone is doing well…" Okay, this is somehow digestible, Charlotte, because we still have to endure the continuation. So, finally, we greeted each other and went into the living room to sit down at the table. Oh my God, and then the second round of lines comes: "Let's sit over there, please! I can't sit there, it's disrespectful to you. You're our guests, you can't sit close to the door. Oh, come on, sit next to the elders, you're at our house for the first time…" And so the whole ceremony called "sitting at the table" went on for the next 10 minutes. I came for the birthday; it's been 20 minutes, and I still haven't figured out where I can sit. Okay, I said, and sat down in one place that they chose for me. As soon as I wanted to have some tea, you know what happened? 5 more women walked into the living room! All 15 of us got up from our seats; we started stupidly repeating our lines from the first round again; then came the second round of lines, after which my place was taken by someone else. And I had to sit down again in another place, where I sat in hopes of having at least one sip of tea. I look at my watch: it's been over 45 minutes. In about 20 minutes I'll have to go home, and I can't even have my tea. Now tell me, please, my dear Charlotte: why are these female habits needed? Who do they benefit? And who invented all this? I dream of the day when these completely useless, and moreover harmful, customs disappear among our people. This trait of our society doesn't appeal to me at all, to put it mildly. I simply can't stand to hear these "lines".

– How I understand you, dear Grandma. I sincerely wish that these customs would disappear from our society. Thank you for sharing these opinions with me, my Grandma!

– Thank you for listening to me! – said Grandma Florentina, and joyfully hugged her granddaughter.

And so, all the members of the Sambrano, Moroco, and Castro families spent their time together in such an interesting and cheerful way. They chatted almost every day, shared different points of view on life, and lived life to the fullest. They spent autumn, winter, and spring in this way. And, on that most important date, May 24, 2008, our Charlotte turned 5 years old. The flash drive came out from under Charlotte's neck again, which only her parents could see; a purple notebook opened, and a white pen began to write the following:

"Charlotte, congratulations on turning 5 today! Every year you learn more and more interesting things about life. Your soul is very happy about this, believe me! From this year, you should remember the following types of lessons:

1. Learning this lesson, of course, does not depend only on you. But, I hope that one day you will be able to convey to everyone that crying loudly at a funeral is not only ugly, but also harmful to the soul of the deceased person.

2. The 2nd lesson mentions that you ca