COMING OF AGE
By Joseph Vella
Her name was Dawn, so baptized by an appreciative father in celebration of the baby's birth during his country's declaration as a sovereign and independent state, in 1964. Dawn entered her world as a child of mixed cultural heritage, one parent boasting of an unbroken European legacy traced to the early 16th century, while the other was equally proud of an ancestry originating from lands due east, from whence the native tongue was borrowed.
During her formative years Dawn's preferences and inspirations were overshadowed by parental veto, given the girl was considered immature, incapable of knowing what was and was not in her best interest. Such self serving attitudes, pronounced under the guise that Dawn was too much at risk as an only precious child, took away her freedom and initiative. On eight important instances, limited home privileges were unilaterally withdrawn for no other reason, but to delay her declared coming of age and demand for independence. Such heavy handed measures hampered her development into a mature adult, but ultimately she prevailed to become a woman of independent disposition.
Dawn's checkered heritage caused problems of self-identification in ways which complicated her existence. As a start she was born tri- lingual, showed a strong affinity for her native speech, yet was pressed by necessity to utilize foreign parlance in the daily pursuit of education and commerce. One language in particular dominated the world of technology and learning, while her own beloved dialect was better suited for poetic diction and imagery.
Other worries gnawed at Dawn's consciousness. Baptized at birth within the dominant religious denomination of her country, she gradually became aware of inner conflicts with dogmatic teachings espoused by her church. She could no longer in good faith blindly follow edicts her mother and father had not dared question let alone challenge. Eternal salvation/damnation was no longer a simple choice between good and evil behavior. It involved self-searching, complex, often conflicting issues on morality in a rapidly changing world of secular imperatives. Fortunately or unfortunately the church was no longer a safe harbor for endangered vessels at sea. The lighthouse still stood but gone was its bright light beam, warning sailors of lurking landfall. A part of Dawn, a divine legacy which until recent time had passed on unaltered from one generation to the next, had vanished forever.
Now of marriageable age, Dawn is being courted by two suitors of different persuasion. One man is enticing her with becoming a cherished member of a well-to-do family, sharing her same cultural values. The price of moving in with his affluent kin is an appreciable loss of identity and freedom of choice, in certain matters of relative importance. His competitor for her hand in marriage is appealing to her emotional heart strings. He does not wish to have his loved one break away from her roots, proposing instead to share a life of lesser materialism in exchange for greater independence. Dawn once more is facing a difficult option, perhaps her most difficult, one that may forever seal her future and all it holds for a happier existence. Family opinion is divided over the prospective bride's dilemma. Most seem to favor upward mobility, even as it may lead to increased dependency on her spouse's substantial estate. They reason Dawn will be better off as a member of an established family, than going the inverse way for the dubious sake of retaining her individual character and identity. Others of a more conservative disposition disavow the uncertain promise of a more prosperous future, in approval of traditional values rooted in blind faith and certitude. Their choice is to have Dawn remain imbedded in the land of her forefathers.
Wither will Dawn go? Odds are she will favor a union beckoning over a distant horizon, one which on balance will bring with it more opportunities for advancement than set backs. Dawn is symbolic of a world in rapid transition. Her Christian name inspires inception, the beginning of a new exciting era. She is not above experiencing pain and suffering, but hope reigns eternal for one who is unafraid of change and challenge. As Dawn must, she will overcome all obstacles on her road to a better life. May God guide and be with her.
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Footnote: The story of Dawn is an analogical account of contemporary
Malta, facing a difficult choice between forging a marriage of
convenience with Western Europe or maintaining its status quo as an
independent nation with associative EU ties. The eight instances of
parental veto and Dawn's treatment as an immature child, address
England's unilateral and self-serving abolishment of Malta's
representative constitution on as many occasions between 1887-1958.
In this light, the article speaks eloquently for itself.
E-mail to Joseph Vella:joevella@prodigy.net
COMING OF AGE.... ONCE AGAIN!
Hello Mr. Vella,
I read your submission of "Coming of Age", found on Grazio Falzon's Malta home page and wished to express my gratitude for the wonderfully composed contribution. The story itself summarizes in a nutshell the dilemma that our friends and relatives in Malta face in this upcoming millenium. It struck close to heart and is why I add these comments.
Its unfortunate that, as you pointed out, "Dawn" will likely choose, once again, to be subjugated to a different yet similar parental situation through which she has just barely emerged. Her young age and puny figure will once again be the butt of the joke around the dining table, whence the leftover gruel provided by her new family is passed along to her in Dickensonian fashion....'Please Sir, may I have more?'. As newly wed she will likely be looked upon comtemptously by the long time and established members of Dawn's "new" family no doubt to be designated the less glamorous chores whilst suffering ignominous remarks about how she should dress and behave in this "new" family.
But then, this is a role to which Dawn has grown accustomed isn't it? After all, for hundreds of years, Dawn was treated as a maid within her own family and when she chose to voice her independence Dawn was vigorously beaten about the head and subjugated into indentured servitude by various parental figures. So for Dawn to lack the inner fortitude to strike it on her own is not outside her character, albeit beneath her dignity.
It is also unfortunate that Dawn spent so much time in servitude that she knows little else these days, for after all, was Dawn not one of (if not the) earliest of civilizations? Were Dawn's eyes to turn away from the gruel and towards the pie, her old senses, for centuries subdued, would return and the olfactories once again recognise the sweet smell of desert causing the mind to nourish the body. Alas, like a beast of burden, her eyes still don blinders put there by parental decree and sees nought but the meagre bowl of gruel offered her through an incestous relationship whereby her former parent is also a groom!
After centuries of servitude Dawn did managed to escape for but a blink of an eye, and as her freedom attained, she felt bewildered by what she encountered outside those blinders. Too bad Dawn is scrambling to fasten them tight lest her mind have time to adjust!
If I sound morbid, maybe its because I (symbolicly) have traveled this well worn road to freedom, breaking my own chains of familial domination, and rather than returning to it in times of trouble, when the meagre gruel beckoned and seemed so immediately satisfying, I chose to resist the temptation. Resisting the urge to indenture myself once more because, in the words of past lessons learned, "Never again" and "Never give up". Believe me, the pie is ever so more satisfying than the gruel and it has invigorated my apetite to grow (in more ways than one).
To my fellow Maltese facing this dilema I would say in the language of my forefathers; "Ahseb mitt darba, u aqta darba!" (Think it over one hndred times and then make the one right choice). Gruel may sustain you, but its neither apetizing nor healthful. If Dawn wishes to turn away her Princely freedom and live as Cinderella, stepdaughter of an onorous family, then expect not to ever live end enjoy life in the Royal palace!
To you Mr. Vella, I extend my warmest regards and hope you will continue your literary submissions to this and other such pages.
Raymond Micallef
E-mail to Raymond Micallef.