Fostering Communities

Today my eighty five year old friend Jean was triggered by memories of school years ago.  Describing her classroom experiences brought the past into the present.  

Hickory Stick Days

“School days – golden learn by rule days.  Reading, writing and arithmetic to the time of a hickory stick.

I must have been so naughty at school

I often remember being canned

The headmaster took us for English

And he marked the books

If you had a “see me” on the page

You knew you were going to be canned

Not with something as light as a hickory stick

The cane he used was as thick as your thumb

And you often had to hold out both hands together!”

A piece by Jean today

This triggered in another friend, memory of a widowed grandmother with ten children and her struggles to bring all these kids up in a small house with no running water, no indoor toilet and no electricity or gas.  As the conversation ran on we were appalled at how hard life was in those days.  How death stalked everyone’s life and how fragile each life was.  Without those heroes that put in decades of hard work and service so many youngsters or aged relatives would never have survived.  The fact that they did it without social services or benefits seems remarkable. 

Then, as we shared memories, everyone was struck by how actually these poor homes were not isolated places but shared spaces where grandparents, neighbours, cousins and  friends came and went.  This fabric of community life suddenly seemed so rich and fertile and full of social interaction.  This new generation has all the benefits and handouts but no such rich safety net around them.  Instead, they inhabit a zone rich in materialism but poor in every other way.  We were all shocked how quickly we found ourselves moving from thinking how hard it was for people in those days to pondering how lonely ,isolated and vulnerable this generation is in comparison.  In a world weary for want of a pattern of life to which to aspire, perhaps we need to relearn forgotten skills in fostering relationships and communities.