I'm sorry, Hillary!

You know how it goes.



You're so smart.



After all, you're 16 or 22, or 37 (or maybe even older, I'll get back to you in a few years...).



Then, years later, you find yourself saying things you never thought would come out of your mouth, and here I go again.



I'm sorry Hillary Clinton.



I'm not doing research to go back and get Ms. Clinton's quote in context, but quite frankly, when she came out with "It takes a village to raise a child", ten years ago or more, I took great umbrage. After all, it took parents to raise a child. I assumed she meant, "give us your kid, we'll give you back a humanistic clone in a few short years." And maybe she did. But... she was right, it does take a village. It takes a whole lot of people all making mistakes in unison to help any of us to raise our kids into anything you might call civilized. It might be teachers, it might be neighbours, relatives or friends, but it also takes in a more general way, a culture, the neighbourhood, "the village".

We're reading a book right now at school called "I Heard the Owl Call My Name." Margaret Craven, in case you're wondering. Its a wonderful, quiet little book. Not typical adolescent fare, but a great life book. I read it years ago and it remains with me as a favourite. Anyway, one thoughtful section talks about "everything is the village." The mountain, the people, the language, the salmon, everything. Aren't we all products of that village? The more we grow up, a process we are all involved in, the more we see that we are made up mostly of parents/genetics, but partly heritage, partly cultural, partly friends, partly randomly interactions. Likely others, but my main point is not to list ingredients, but to see the bigger picture that we need a village of goodness to make us and now, more urgently, for our children.

Help out, or get out of town!