Thanks, kids!

The subject of children seems to be everywhere in my life right now.  We can't decide if or when we might want to have our own children but people ask me all the time - people at work, relatives on both sides of our family, even strangers.  I love kids and I always have - they are so interesting in the way they look at the world.  I find their observations to be so clear at times, they have a way of getting right to the truth, and it's not always the truth we are looking for.

Recently my friend Richard Wetmore completed an album of songs about food and food production.  He is an organic farmer and works at Speerville Mill, where you should be buying your grains, if you aren't already.  Although Richard's songs have a lot of strong statements about the dangers of industrial agriculture, it is his attitude towards children that stands out for me.  When is the last time you saw a fitysomething man state (sing) in public that "childcare should be at the top of our list, because what's more important than that?"  Not lately....

I had a wonderful childhood - despite my mom being sick with cancer and despite my family not having a lot of money.  But we weren't 'hurried' and we weren't medicated and we ate food straight out of the garden and were very close with our extended family.  So looking back I do miss those sunny days of bike rides and swimming and playing on our grandparents farm.  And I look at what some kids have to contend with these days (lingerie lines for 8 year olds, princess culture, bullying, etc.) and I don't feel too good about our society.

Here's a great article on the need to protect children from big business and here's a link to a great CBC podcast about the trend towards turning 2 year olds into academic stars.  Not kidding, unfortunately.  Something to chew on just in time for back to school.

One of the best parts of the Dooryard Festival was watching the kids go nuts with the sidewalk chalk at the mainstage on Saturday.  They had that place as vibrant as could be, and they told me they were making a dance floor.  Now that's a world I can enjoy.  Thank goodness for kids, the world would be a terrible place without them.