One of the problems many children face when growing up is when they have been born to parents who for one reason or another need their children’s support to survive.

Life has dealt with them harshly and it’s their children that have been keeping them going, helping them make ends meet, helping them survive. And the problem is that these kids need a life, they need to be able to go out into the world and find who they are, find who they can connect with, find the uses that their interests, their talents, their passions, can be in this world.

But how can they leave those who bore them, those who cared for them as best they could, but needed, and still need support to live? In any decent world, this wouldn’t be an issue, because a good family, a good neighbour, a good community, a good society, would be on the look out for each other. Would see when someone needs help, and make sure they are ok. The children wouldn’t be overly burdened with the needs of their parent, because the family, the community, the society that to which we all belong, would take care of them.

The community, the caring loving community, would give to those who need a little help, would see to it that no one is left wanting, left helpless, left scared and alone.

So, when the children learn to be the young adults they were meant to be, when they are ready to explore the rest of their life’s potential, they are free to do so. And in doing so, in being able to go on that journey, of becoming, of learning, of growing, they add to the complex beauty, the diverse wonder, of our community, our society, in maybe small or maybe enormous ways, that can make life better for all of us. Isn’t that the world we should be living in?

The family, the community, the society, we should all strive for.

I like to think so.

Marissa Klotzbucher - Thoughts and Comments for Public Consumption