My Kids' Hopes & Dreams

I really will try to keep this rant to a minimum. I knew I shouldn't watch the debates a couple nights ago. Knew it wouldn't add anything to my peace or joy or sense of freedom. I *really* knew I should turn the TV off when they got to the last question about education, phrased in a way that made children sound like tools. But I watched and I listened. And I heard two men with their own goals and agendas talk as if those should be the goals and agendas of everyone -- that our children need to be molded and shaped to compete and dominate internationally.

My kids can figure out their own goals, their own agendas. They can live their own *dreams*. So far, their lives don't seem to have anything whatsoever to do with international competition or domination.

While I was turning this stuff over in my head yesterday morning, griping and grumbling, I found comfort in two things. First, was a collage of pictures I have hanging on my wall. Pictures of my kids playing & laughing & just being themselves. In one frame I have this poem by Kahlil Gibran:

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and the daughters of

Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet

They belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,

Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them,

But seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward

Nor tarries with yesterday.

Here is a version sung beautifully by Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Second, I found a paper Maya is working on for girl scouts. She was writing & drawing her ideas for how to live out the "girl scout law." It's an image I have seen her draw numerous times. It's inspired by Amy Steinberg's song, Exactly. I have Maya singing part of it as my ringtone on my phone: Peace, Love, Free; Peace, Love, Free...