It was a beautiful warm and sunny day, after these long and cold winters. Most of the snow melted away and i was so glad at spring's arrival. I was just happy and observing my surroundings. I have this habit of reading (looking at) every single advertisement (billboards, hoardings, neon signs etc) on my way to school, work or if i am just outdoors. I think its normal to be observant lol and many people do that.
So, i am waiting for my bus at a bus-stop to go to work in my own thoughts while looking around and a bus stops, obviously with a display of advertisement. I looked at it and read "It takes a whole village to raise a child" with a picture of a really happy child, probably a (smiling) mother hugging him and a bunch of delighted people surrounding the child.. I happen to read this "quote" for the first time ever in my life and it just stuck to my mind. I am not a parent myself and it was hard for me to put the quote and the picture together. What would it mean? Why and how the whole village? I came across the same ad the next day at a bus-stop, and the next day and so on.
It got me thinking over time. I found a way to answer my own questions. I opened the book of my childhood memories and started finding the answers to my questions. I was mainly raised by my parents, spent some time with my grand-parents, with my immediate and extended family members. I had friends at school, so their families had an influence on me as well. I had teachers, actually most of my time was spent with them and had a huge influence on my upbringing, mental and physical development. My neighbors, their families and baby-sitters and bunch of other people (religious educators) who were involved in raising me besides my parents. So, technically i was part of a village, and everyone in that village had a share in raising me. I was attached to them and they were my family members. I was connected to my community through them and i know very well that as they were important and significant to me, i was very dear and special to them to some extent. My existence mattered to us all, to my small village of people. Everyone knew me growing up, and thats how "it takes a whole village to raise a child". I was due to them, and they were due to me. We were the links of a community that connected us to eachother like a chemical bonding.
After few days of this splendid "discovery", i was just too greatful to be part of this "village" and thank God i wasn't living alone on an island on my own (*Cast away*). I recognized my obligation that the kids i see everyday in my neighborhood are not just their parents/families responsibity, instead i have a little part in that child's growth, upbringing and well-being by representing and setting an ideal example of a citizenship.
Lets come to the final point and the "main" reason behind writing this blog. I was very positive towards life after finding the meaning of this quote. But after listening to endless drone attacks on Pakistan (by America)and other parts of the world and how communities and "villages" are being destroyed and the soul of humanity is murdered leaving behind wounded, handicapped and helpless children around, is not how modern human should fight terrorism. Instead, they themselves are inflicting terrorism on innocent people and just like that, it takes one bomb/attack to turn that smiling portrait of a "child in a village" into a massacre and widespread butchery. The light of that soul covered by scary darkness. Raising a scared and a helpless child is in itself a death of a community
My deepest prayers for those in agony.
