Paton's Poem for His Son

Here are some lines from Alan Paton's "Meditation for a Young Boy Confirmed" (the young boy is his son, David, and the poem is first about his confirmation, and, more broadly, about him becoming a man and entering into the world):

IV

"I watch him with old and knowledgeable and very old eyes, I am
aware that he had been indoctrinated,
I am aware that his choice is contingent, that I have allowed him
to commit himself deeply,
I am aware that he is neither a Buddhist nor a Muslim, that his
circumstances have hardly permitted him to consider these religions.
I am aware that the whole world is not confirmed, that the whole
world does not communicate,
I am aware that some climate has changed in the world, therefore
I write these words to him."

(This is my favorite picture of Paton: I can just imagine him writing there, "There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it. ..." [Of course, I remember that it wasn't until he left South Africa that he wrote Cry, the Beloved Country])