To Julia Charlotte,
I've been thinking today that perhaps one of the bigger challenges to the American family and community is the ability to use transportation to go here,there and everywhere, thereby leading us to participate in a pace of life that is not truly sustainable or healthful for a strong family and church/community life.
Supposing I had the many greenbacks to afford it I could enroll the children in all manner of enriching classes and proceed to run here and there keeping them and me frightfully busy and supposedly better for all our trouble.
Since I do not have the aforementioned generous supply of greenbacks nor the second vehicle to allow me to do this, I have proceeded to find, within my church and friend community, a far more organic way of training for my brood. One friend teaches them music and singing and we trade him lunch and gifts and on occasion a check. We all like this arrangement. He's young and single and seems to like hanging out with a family sometimes, we like his company and benefit from his talents.
Another friend teaches our boys bicycle repair. (Actually the music teacher also is teaching road biking skills to our children.) The bike repairing friend wants to do a simple version of Boy Scouts with the boys also. A grandmother without many grandchildren teaches Bible stories and crafts. One friend is willing to come do some drama lessons. Art may be in the works too.
And instead of running around to kiddie sport team events, our boys have adult mentors that play pick-up games with them and oftentimes children and adults from households that have extra needs.Our boys play hard and thrive in these unconventional setups and pose the question of the need for many of the somewhat contrived classes and teams that our culture has come to think of as needful and normal. And we do most of this using little gas and travel time for anyone involved. Green and community enriching, no?
Pilgrimama
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