We are a continuum. Just as we reach back to our ancestors for our fundamental values, so we, as guardians of that legacy, must reach ahead to our children and their children. And we do so with a sense of sacredness in that reaching.
Interpretation
We connect with our past and have a responsibility to protect and pass on our values to future generations.
The quote emphasizes the importance of recognizing our roots and the values instilled by our ancestors while also highlighting the responsibility we have towards future generations. It suggests a sacred duty to bridge the past and the future, ensuring that the positive aspects of our heritage are preserved and thoughtfully passed down.
In practice
In a speech about generational responsibility, one could quote this to emphasize the importance of values.
Children exist in the world as well as in the family. From the moment they are born, they depend on a host of other “grownups” — grandparents, neighbors, teachers, ministers, employers, political leaders, and untold others who touch their lives directly and indirectly.
I was aware, in those early days of motherhood, that my behaviour was strange to the people who knew me well. It was as though I had been brainwashed, taken over by a cult religion. And yet this cult, motherhood, was not a place where I could actually live. Like any cult, it demanded a complete surrender of identity to belong to it.
My ideal of womanhood has always been the pioneer woman who fought and worked at her husband's side. She bore the children, kept the home fires burning; she was the hub of the family, the planner and the dreamer.
On the good days, my mother would haul out the ukulele and we'd sit around the kitchen table - it was a cardboard table with a linoleum top - and sing.
My mother was very proud of her Indian heritage and taught us, me and my sister Maya, to share in the pride about our culture. We used to go back to India every couple of years.
Anytime a child is born, the old people look in his face and ask him if he's the One.
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