We teach our children virtues but never follow them ourselves

I went to the cinema to watch a recently lukewarm movie, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Many film critics are right. This movie adapted from a comic book is indeed youth-oriented. It\’s so simple that apart from the exquisite special effects, the storyline can be explained in a few sentences: humans destroyed a less civilized alien planet in an interstellar war, and the commander deleted the mission record in order to cover up his mistakes. Thirty years later, the aliens wandering in the universe chose to forgive. The hero and heroine returned the treasures they deserved on their planet. The aliens successfully rebuilt their homeland, but the commander who tried to drive them out was imprisoned. Forgiveness, the courage to take responsibility, and the courage to admit mistakes are all virtues shown in the movie and are very positive. But to be honest, this plot seems quite childish in the adult world. If we put it into real life, I\’m afraid our choice will be different. When I saw the ending subtitle \”I dedicate this film to my father,\” I guess the director just used a child\’s logic and used light and shadow to recreate a bedtime story he heard as a child. Honesty, kindness, tolerance, justice, we teach our children many virtues since childhood, but we rarely follow them ourselves. I remember that when my son was young, his father-in-law lived in our house for more than a month, during which time he and his son got along very happily. The father-in-law was about to go home and asked his son: \”Do you miss grandpa?\” \”No.\” Our son\’s straightforward answer made us very embarrassed. I taught my son privately: \”You should tell grandpa that you miss him! Why are you so rude!\” My son said: \”But I really don\’t want to! We have been together for so many days, and I really don\’t want to anymore. No. Are you not allowed to lie?\” I was speechless. I really don\’t know where my son went wrong. We teach our children virtues, but we keep violating them: we are taught to be courteous to others, but we often curse when we have conflicts with others; we are taught to be civilized and orderly, but few of us practice self-discipline when there is no supervision. We are taught to correct mistakes when we know they are wrong, but as long as it is beneficial to ourselves, we will often stick to \”one mistake until the end\”. …Perhaps, we often laugh at the innocence of children in our hearts. However, in the competition between kindness and morality, it is actually the adults who should be laughed at. As the proverb goes: \”No gold is enough, and no one is perfect.\” When the sages established moral standards, they did not require everyone to do things according to the rules and strictly abide by dogma. But at least, you should be kind in your heart and have a yearning for a better society. And when kindness becomes what people call \”silly\”, it reflects the pathological tendencies of social psychology. Mencius said: \”A great man should not lose his innocent heart.\” A great person should have a heart as pure and kind as a child. My son once asked me when he was a child: \”Dad, why are you telling me that you can\’t do these things, but people are doing them?\” I don\’t want to tell him that those moral codes will not be followed by most people at all, let alone tell him Sometimes there is no fault in the behavior but it may be a fault. But as he grows up, he will naturally question the virtues he was taught. It is a tragedy that society destroys beautiful ideas for children. Compared with the world of children, the world of adults should have more responsibilities than violations. Virtue should never be criticized,Good intentions should never be criticized, and mistakes should never be hidden. This is a child\’s perspective and logic. This is worthy of our thinking and worthy of our setting an example, even if it is just to protect a dream in their hearts.