Beverly Hoffman
Leave life lessons for children
Published on Wed, Dec 2, 2009 by Beverly HoffmanRead More Hoffman
Recently a friend lamented that at the end of her father's life, when she was trying to elicit from him some of the lessons he had garnered over his lifetime, he didn't have the words to articulate his wisdom.
Over the years she has felt that loss and was particularly happy, then, to find tidbits of life's lessons in Mitch Albom's book "A Little Faith." She decided to use his book, underlining key passages and adding her own thoughts. She planned to pass the book on to her children.
I've thought about our talk a number of times and have wondered (somewhat in a reverse question of my friend's) what our children consider our wisdom to be. What are the words we've passed down?
It's a particularly interesting question during the holiday season when hustle and bustle take on epic efforts, a time we stretch the limits of checkbook balances to find the perfect presents for our children and grandchildren.
Books to grow with
As this year comes into full holiday frenzy, I'm finding myself tossing gift catalogs into the trash. They hold little interest.
I am, however, using the Internet to find sites that offer advice on permaculture. I'm also looking at vegetable seed catalogs. I'm reading articles on raising chickens and had fun imagining an eg-loo advertised as a chicken pen that looks like an igloo.
A friend recommended a book "The Last Child Left" by Richard Louv, who categorizes how our nation has looked at nature in the past century.
He categorizes three frontiers: utilitarian in the early century as man needed the land for food and clothing; a romantic detachment as the second era; and now the electronic detachment, where we have no connection with our food source.
He links a rise in childhood obesity, attention deficit disorder and depression to the fact that children have a nature deficit disorder, not a medical condition, but a description of the costs of being alienated from nature.
Nature smarts
Being in tune to nature is an intelligence we as parents, city officials and schools need to foster. Howard Gardner, author of "Multiple Intelligence for the 21st Century," argued that the traditional IQ testings were far too limiting and added a broad range of intelligences of human potential in children - being word smart, number smart, picture smart, body smart, music smart, people smart, self smart, and more recently he's added nature smart, citing Darwin, John Muir and Rachel Carson as examples.
In our valley, we are blessed by many nature-smart people. Recently I went to Paul Gautschi's orchard/garden and listened to his nature-wisdom. When he drilled a well that offered a minimum of water, he enlarged his vision and looked to nature.
He noticed giant cedars and Doug-firs with deep, rich colors that never were fertilized or irrigated, except by nature itself. He began to observe nature and copy it, mulching his land year after year.
His apple trees drip with fruit. The foliage and leaves in his garden are deep green, and he doesn't bother to thin his garden, again copying nature. He laughs and says the carrots will make room for one another.
Amazing life
The holidays are here. Christmas wrap and sparkly bows remind us that we should buy presents and wrap them ... to show our love. Two books to consider for under the tree for anyone involved with children are Richard Louv's "Last Child in the Woods" and Joseph Cornell's "Sharing Nature with Children," a fabulous book on helping children to be more aware in nature.
For my present to my children, I want them to know that I'm trying to become nature smart, and my wish is that they, too, will explore and stretch their minds to become nature smart.
I want my children and grandchildren to know that we love our land. I want them to pick an apple from our trees and let the juices run down their wrists. I hope they go to gardens and pick fruit and vegetables and then go home and cook them with their parents.
I want their bodies to be so full of nutrients that they don't want to snack on sugary things. I want them to feel alive and well, knowing that they must be as kind to the earth as they are to their best friends.
Abraham Joshua Heschel, a great teacher, said, "Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement." I want our children and grandchildren to awaken each day and to become more amazed at each thing they learn anew about this amazing, incredible world.
Beverly Hoffman can be reached at columnists@sequimgazette.com.
Over the years she has felt that loss and was particularly happy, then, to find tidbits of life's lessons in Mitch Albom's book "A Little Faith." She decided to use his book, underlining key passages and adding her own thoughts. She planned to pass the book on to her children.
I've thought about our talk a number of times and have wondered (somewhat in a reverse question of my friend's) what our children consider our wisdom to be. What are the words we've passed down?
It's a particularly interesting question during the holiday season when hustle and bustle take on epic efforts, a time we stretch the limits of checkbook balances to find the perfect presents for our children and grandchildren.
Books to grow with
As this year comes into full holiday frenzy, I'm finding myself tossing gift catalogs into the trash. They hold little interest.
I am, however, using the Internet to find sites that offer advice on permaculture. I'm also looking at vegetable seed catalogs. I'm reading articles on raising chickens and had fun imagining an eg-loo advertised as a chicken pen that looks like an igloo.
A friend recommended a book "The Last Child Left" by Richard Louv, who categorizes how our nation has looked at nature in the past century.
He categorizes three frontiers: utilitarian in the early century as man needed the land for food and clothing; a romantic detachment as the second era; and now the electronic detachment, where we have no connection with our food source.
He links a rise in childhood obesity, attention deficit disorder and depression to the fact that children have a nature deficit disorder, not a medical condition, but a description of the costs of being alienated from nature.
Nature smarts
Being in tune to nature is an intelligence we as parents, city officials and schools need to foster. Howard Gardner, author of "Multiple Intelligence for the 21st Century," argued that the traditional IQ testings were far too limiting and added a broad range of intelligences of human potential in children - being word smart, number smart, picture smart, body smart, music smart, people smart, self smart, and more recently he's added nature smart, citing Darwin, John Muir and Rachel Carson as examples.
In our valley, we are blessed by many nature-smart people. Recently I went to Paul Gautschi's orchard/garden and listened to his nature-wisdom. When he drilled a well that offered a minimum of water, he enlarged his vision and looked to nature.
He noticed giant cedars and Doug-firs with deep, rich colors that never were fertilized or irrigated, except by nature itself. He began to observe nature and copy it, mulching his land year after year.
His apple trees drip with fruit. The foliage and leaves in his garden are deep green, and he doesn't bother to thin his garden, again copying nature. He laughs and says the carrots will make room for one another.
Amazing life
The holidays are here. Christmas wrap and sparkly bows remind us that we should buy presents and wrap them ... to show our love. Two books to consider for under the tree for anyone involved with children are Richard Louv's "Last Child in the Woods" and Joseph Cornell's "Sharing Nature with Children," a fabulous book on helping children to be more aware in nature.
For my present to my children, I want them to know that I'm trying to become nature smart, and my wish is that they, too, will explore and stretch their minds to become nature smart.
I want my children and grandchildren to know that we love our land. I want them to pick an apple from our trees and let the juices run down their wrists. I hope they go to gardens and pick fruit and vegetables and then go home and cook them with their parents.
I want their bodies to be so full of nutrients that they don't want to snack on sugary things. I want them to feel alive and well, knowing that they must be as kind to the earth as they are to their best friends.
Abraham Joshua Heschel, a great teacher, said, "Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement." I want our children and grandchildren to awaken each day and to become more amazed at each thing they learn anew about this amazing, incredible world.
Beverly Hoffman can be reached at columnists@sequimgazette.com.
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