Buenos Aires, Argentina - "To honor parents is to honor life" was the motto under which the UPF-Argentina held on June 4, the Global Day of Parents, a date set by Resolution 66/292 of the UN General Assembly on September 17, 2012 and honored by the Universal Peace Federation with celebrations and activities around the world.
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"You owe your parents"
The celebration in Buenos Aires was held at the headquarters of the Peace Embassy and was intended to honor all mothers and fathers, as givers of life and love. On the International Day of Families, conjugal and maternal/paternal love were emphasized; on this occasion filial love, or the affection that children develop for their parents, was also highlighted.
"Our society and our world are lacking parents," said Carlos Varga, President of the Family Federation in Argentina, in referring to the celebration." Just as we feel like brothers and sisters in the family because we have parents, there should also be parents in society," he said. "Conflicts are related to this lack," he added."Existence is given through the presence of two. The Day of Parents refers to this origin.... What we need to protect is the cell of this matrix," he said. He also highlighted the values of loyalty and filial piety in the family, criticized individualism and the lack of a parental heart, and advocated balancing private concerns with community concerns. He mentioned that religious people are often considered to be fathers or mothers and "For some reason we call God as Father," he said in conclusion.
Youth and old people, including an adopted daughter and a son raised by his grandfather, shared experiences they had with their parents, expressing the feeling of gratitude. The Oriental proverb: "Raise your children, and you will know how much you owe your parents," emerged as a conclusion to some of the reflections.
"Enlarge the soul"
"We are not alone," said Ezequiel Masoni, CEO of Fundación Proyecto Padres (the Parent Project Foundation), whose mission is "to guide parents to strengthen their irreplaceable role of raising their children" under the motto: "Better parents, better children, better Argentines."
"The diagnosis is clear," he said about the current social challenges. "We must reverse it. And we have to work for it." Since 2002 he has been working with a group of professionals who are giving speeches and workshops to thousands of parents and teenagers across the country about complex issues such as entertainment, addictive behaviors, communication, boundaries, and the use of new technologies.
After his reflection, members of the CARP youth group gave gifts to the parents: badges for the mothers and pens for the fathers. At the end, the UPF Declaration for the Global Day of Parents was read by Rosetta Conti Castellón, President of the Women's Federation, Argentine chapter. This Declaration outlines the important role of parents as the backbone of the family and the cornerstone of social life and "invites governments to implement initiatives and policies to strengthen the role of parents and to share information according to their contribution to the development agenda of the United Nations, including the Millennium Development Goals."
Among the testimonies and reflections was a poem read by Mr. Bernardo Del Guercio, who dedicated it to his mother, who had recently passed on to the spirit world: The motherly advice, expressed by Olegario Víctor Andrade, concludes with praise for universal love, an appropriate sentiment for the Global Day of Parents:
Always call your mother when you suffer,
and she will come, dead or alive.
If she is in this world, she will share your sorrows,
and if not, she will comfort you from above...
And I do so when my luck runs out,
like today, and disturbs the calm of my home.
I invoke the name of my beloved mother,
and then I feel that my soul widens!
Translation: Ricardo Gómez