Kindness, love, and strength—the three pillars of parenting and the conference theme.
Two children are sitting on the floor; one is given a loaf of bread. A fight breaks out because the other child came away empty-handed. The European mother bends down, breaks the bread into two, and gives one half to each child. The world seems to be in order again. Is it?
An anthropologist describes the same scenario, this time in Central Africa. Again, one of the two children has the bread in their hands, and the mother takes it and divides it into two. But in this case, she gives both halves back to the child who originally had the whole loaf. What happens? The little girl looks at the two pieces in her hands, her gaze shifting from one hand to the other, then to her sibling, who has no bread. Then she reaches out and hands one piece to her sibling. What an image! It takes strength for the mother to intervene and take the bread, kindness to divide it in two, and love to return it to the child who originally had it. In this way, the child can discover compassion on their own and is not forced to do so.
What the African mother does both calls forth love and gives it at the same time. This is also true of kindness and strength: when we give them, we invite them to blossom. Just as the child receives strength, love, and kindness and is then able to give them, so it is with us adults. We are loving, kind, and strong when we are able to receive love, kindness, and strength—and where better to do so than with children themselves, for who is as loving, kind, and strong as children are?
Translation Laura Liska
Image Drawings by a 3-year-old girl from South Korea, 2021. Source: ChildArt e.V. archives.
