Village people

Here’s the deal. Truth upfront. All the problems in the world, well, maybe just in the (un)United States, are caused by us. US, I said. Self-evident truth and all those civil liberties that have become buried and embedded into the strata of geological time. This has nothing to do with cerebral concepts such as the pursuit of doing what you love, finding happiness, being mindful and getting rich quick. The issue is breeding and duplication. It is out of control. Is humanity and adapting and making do with our rapidly changing environments or devolving from our terrestrial realms and merely grounded to our emotional subjectivity.
I want to know what the heck is happening to our offspring?
What are they being taught? What are they learning from us?

Who raises their own children anymore? How will they know what not to be?
Isn't this a bit scary?

I have yet to meet a person that appreciates being told that they are doing it wrong.
From investing money to parenting and from kissing to cooking, there is no one right way to get the most out of an empty well or to live a life of harmonic balance. Although I know less than nothing about financial investments (which matches my net worth to the penny,) I do know a thing or two about parenting and the investment of resources and time required to keep the job without any guarantee of tenure, retirement or security.
There is no balance to anything-that lasts longer than a moment. Balance is a constant adjustment.
Anybody that tells you about life-balance has fallen off their own ball.

It is sad, heartbreaking to notice that making more humans is not taken very seriously. There is no testing, no counseling, no random safety checks or quality inspections, and in my experience, although I lived in a real Village, there were no people to assist me with raising my children but I think I was better off knowing what I know now about that Village. 

One summer vacation my kids and I were visiting the tiny mountain town I grew up in and my daughter asked if we were going into the Village to see the Village people today? The sentiment was so innocent. She really thought all towns are called villages. People don't live in cities she informed me-where would they sleep? Cities have airports for all the people that come and go, she once informed me. Looking at it her way, the homeless were just displaced travelers waiting on stand-by.

So many people seem to be so preoccupied with all the other people. When did we start being so curious about what people we do not know are eating, or need to know where they go, or want to hear what they listen to or read and believe any of it is true or interesting?  We are all unique, but not that different. We were the very first- who knew how to find out anything with our fingertips but were too pre-occupied to notice that things figured us out first. 

When the parents of the world stopped raising their children's eyes from the screen, the window to the world became handheld. The world in the palms of our hands became a quite literal demand. The iPad is the babysitter, the teacher, the consoler, the nurse. It’s all fun and apps until your child points out that your smartphone is smarter than you, your car now knows if you are paying attention to where you are going while we trace our steps wondering if we are losing this game we have so much skin in. 

Village people are simple, not idiots. Villages were never meant for growth or else they would be called  Cities. To call a place a Village it must be larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town and is situated in a rural area. By this definition, Villages are endangered if not at the brink of extinction. Rural? Hamlet? Villages used to conjure up the idea of a farming or fishing community since these clusters of people living together often were producers of sustenance. A village is socialist, it is dare I say, communist in its ideal working conditions. And villages are described also as ‘unincorporated communities’ yet considering the alliance of the residents, I would dare to guess that Village people are more pleasant and productive than city folk. 

The way and how we live has changed dramatically but we still gather in groups, even if we don’t look at or speak to each other. We have a lot of the same needs and desires, we also share our worst fears which is why we leave the lights on in the city all night. Nobody lasts long doing the graveyard shift anyway. 

The number one function of a village is trade. I have only seen cash traded for various items in this village. One must give to get. When I gave birth I got a new job. When I accepted the new position and big title I foolishly felt like a part of the bigger world.  When I realized I was chosen, I did not choose otherwise it was humbling to learn that assemblies are always required of us. I recently quit a job that traded my life by the hour for a few dollars to buy dinner. The woman who was my boss suggested, “We should trade. I will take your kids and you take mine,”  she was serious. It was hilarious and preposterous.  She suggested I adopt her brother-in-law’s young son as if anybody could raise anybody's’ child. I guess there are still Village idiots thinking that working together means living together. I guess we are all over-spending our dumb luck?


Painting by Frédéric Bazille, 'View of the village' c. 1868 in [Public domain].