My ten-year-old has a truly global sensibility.
Always has.
From about age four, she’d tell anyone who’d listen that she was into "cultures".
At various times we’ve had on our hands a budding anthropologist, a high priestess, a peacekeeper, a journalist, and a political rabble rouser. These days she makes it clear that she’ll do any variety of work as long as she has to travel around the world to do it.
In the meantime, though, she does what she can.
Experiments with Chinese calligraphy.
Dances to world beat.
Cuddles up at night with a sarong she calls Rosa.
And, lately, throw herself into Pennies for Peace.
Pennies for Peace is the charitable offshoot of the book Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson.
The premise is that the way toward world peace, prosperity and equality is through education.
And that every penny counts when trying to educate all the world’s children.
Yesterday, my girl introduced Pennies for Peace to the other fourth graders at her school.
Today, she hosted a Pakistani friend who talked to the kids about life in his home country.
The reception the kids gave him was vibrant.
They couldn’t stop popping up onto their knees with questions.
About the climate, the clothing, the game of cricket.
One little boy ended up telling the visitor about how Pakistan used to be a part of India — and asked him if he’d ever heard of Ghandi. And another pointed out that maybe K2 isn’t the second-tallest mountain in the world if you counted one of the oceanic mountains. Lots of the kids wanted to hear him speak in Urdu.
What struck me about the whole thing was how comfortable these kids are with the notion that the world is small and full of friends.
Seems to me that they’re presuming something that we still don’t always ‘get’ — at societal and political levels. What we see as groundbreaking, they take as a given. And that is the sort of thing that helps me sleep well at night…
So in honor of my Tall One, and all her open-hearted friends, these few words from Whitman today.
Namaste.
from A Passage to India
by Walt Whitman
(Read the rest here…)
Tanita Says 🙂
“the world is small and full of friends.”
Oh, I do love that. And I love that Walt Whitman wrote a poem about India. I ask again: WHY did we never read these in school!?
Lo, soul! seest thou not God’s purpose from the first?
The earth to be spann’d, connected by network,
The races, neighbors, to marry and be given in marriage,
The oceans to be cross’d, the distant brought near,
The lands to be welded together.
Ah, that sings.
Re: Tanita Says 🙂
I know! Hellllooooo — who’s making up the curriculum?? Some of this stuff is mighty fine — helllooooo!!!!
Oh sweet, sweet Finlay. She rocks my world! Jen
Mine too 🙂
Culturally speaking
I love this story especially knowing the tall one that implemented the guest from India. She is an amazing child that in my lesser self intimidated me in how much she seemed to know her true self. Born knowing her true self when it seemed to take me so long to get there!
And by the way, knowing your small one and how tall she is becoming, think you might have to change their blog nicknames soon?
Thanks for sharing this Liz. Fantastic!
Re: Culturally speaking
She’s a child that intimated ME a little at first and I’m her mom. So. Go figure that one out.
And yes. The nicknames will obviously have to get tossed out soon and I’ll have to start using Amazonian Adolescent and Elevated Eight-Year-Old. Or something like that…
The perfect poem
…to celebrate your daughter’s openness to the world around her.
Re: The perfect poem
It’s lovely, huh?
Love, love this post. Your Tall One is so inspiring and fills me with hope. Yes, the world is small and full of friends.
It really is. The blogosphere is such a vivid illustration of that, don’t you think? I mean, who’d peg us for a bunch of strangers??
What a lovely post. The children are the future, of course, and the more that they accept all the wonderful differences in people and cultures, the better off our future will be, methinks.
thanks, liz
as our ‘baby’ will soon head off to be an exchange student (in japan! for a year!), i tend to be a little teary-eyed, when with joy I sing. here’s to the future, O soul.
-annette simon
This post makes me happy. Like most of the wonders your girls get up to, all I can ever think to say is “Amen.”
So happy to hear that Finlay is continuing on with Pennies for Peace. I remember when we first chatted about it. Both of those girls of yours? Wow!!
Marty
whoa
Now THAT is beautiful. And gives me hope for the future, which I desperately needed today. Thanks to you and your tall one.
Also: “The earth to be spann’d, connected by network…” Who knew Whitman was a prophet?
~eisha (7-Imp)
Re: whoa
That is kind of a freaky line, huh?
I loved listening in on the classroom conversation. A couple of students in my 4th grade class wanted to raise money for the homeless by having a lemonade stand at lunchtime. I suggested that they make a to-do list to begin getting their thoughts organized. When I checked back with them, this was their list so far:
1. Change the world.
Oh, bless them.
Do you love that or what????