Food for the soul
There’s a community garden in Clarkston where Tommy has been helping. I have found so much healing tilling the soil of our garden in Bainbridge and spending time talking to God and am glad there is a place here for people to feed both their bodies and souls, in more ways than one. I’ve wondered what the transition to the United States must be like for some of the families, coming from war torn nations where violence disrupts day to day life. I’ve wondered how they adjust to different cultures in which values are vastly different from those in their homeland. There were some disruptions to family life that I hadn’t taken into account though. Leaving their homeland and coming to the United States has created an imbalance in the multigenerational family units.
The normal hierarchal system allows the wisdom of the ages to be revered and honored. The grandparents guide and assist their children and grandchildren with knowledge and understanding, gleaned through years of experience and often in businesses or trades that are passed down in families. But what happens when you remove them from the environment that they are knowledgeable about? It comes as no surprise that the older people are the ones that are having the hardest time adjusting to a new country. But I’d never thought about the problems that might stem from their own families. Many of the grandparents feel they loose the respect of their families when they have nothing left to contribute. The wisdom is now instead coming from the youngest rather than the oldest. It is the children who are learning a new language in school at a pace that neither their parents nor grandparents can keep up with. They are then often given the responsibility of translating for the family. This can create it’s own set of problems both elevating young children to a place of power while at the same time putting a burden on them they are not mature enough to handle. Even without the language barriers, some of the concepts learned in school are new to Americans- I think we’ve all heard many complaints on our soil about the confusion Common Core math has caused parents.
The garden helps to bridge these generations again. It is the grandparents that can be found tending the soil and cultivating crops. While the children are in school and parents are at work, the grandparents have a way to offer meaningful contributions to their families. They feed the bodies, and in turn their own souls find healing.
The normal hierarchal system allows the wisdom of the ages to be revered and honored. The grandparents guide and assist their children and grandchildren with knowledge and understanding, gleaned through years of experience and often in businesses or trades that are passed down in families. But what happens when you remove them from the environment that they are knowledgeable about? It comes as no surprise that the older people are the ones that are having the hardest time adjusting to a new country. But I’d never thought about the problems that might stem from their own families. Many of the grandparents feel they loose the respect of their families when they have nothing left to contribute. The wisdom is now instead coming from the youngest rather than the oldest. It is the children who are learning a new language in school at a pace that neither their parents nor grandparents can keep up with. They are then often given the responsibility of translating for the family. This can create it’s own set of problems both elevating young children to a place of power while at the same time putting a burden on them they are not mature enough to handle. Even without the language barriers, some of the concepts learned in school are new to Americans- I think we’ve all heard many complaints on our soil about the confusion Common Core math has caused parents.
The garden helps to bridge these generations again. It is the grandparents that can be found tending the soil and cultivating crops. While the children are in school and parents are at work, the grandparents have a way to offer meaningful contributions to their families. They feed the bodies, and in turn their own souls find healing.
Comments
Post a Comment