A different view of children as "arrows"

[Hane]

Last Sunday at our UU church, part of the last-Sunday-in-Advent service was a baby dedication. It included a reading from Khalil Gibran's "The Prophet":

You are the bows from which your children

as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,

and He bends you with His might

that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

For even as He loves the arrow that flies,

so He loves also the bow that is stable.

(only the reader used She instead of He--the new parents are Pagans.)

Most of us here hope that our children "may go swift and far." How sad that the arrows in a fundie's "quiver" won't.

[Arete]

Thank you for posting that Hane. I have had a soft spot for Khalil Gibran's poetry since my late teens. Isn't it amazing that a man who came from the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th Century had a healthier view of the man/woman and parent/child relationship than 21st century American fundies?

[AVENues]

For even as He loves the arrow that flies,

so He loves also the bow that is stable.

That, was beautiful... and perfectly summed up good parenting to me. A stable parent (rob the kid of stability at home and see them crumble mentally!) and they need their wings to fly. I would like to become a Montessori educator, that's my calling so this poem totally came through to me.

And yes. Fundy fathers do not like arrows that fly. They like arrows broken in half, with their sharp end dulled. Broken and ruined arrows that cannot do anything but lying around in the quiver, scrammed in with 1.5 dozen other broken arrows. Now that's a good waste of ammunition.

[fundyfunland]

Thank you for posting that Hane. I have had a soft spot for Khalil Gibran's poetry since my late teens. Isn't it amazing that a man who came from the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th Century had a healthier view of the man/woman and parent/child relationship than 21st century American fundies?

Where's that LIKE button? Yes, I too am a huge fan of Khalil Gibrna's 'The Prophet.' It's one of my favourite books. Thanks for finding that reference to arrows :)

[MamaJunebug]

Beautiful!

Not taking anything away from the Biblical verse about the blessed man whose quiver is full of arrows ... it's not sufficient to build a whole religion upon!, and who wants his/her children stuffed in a quiver, rather than out in the world doing something?

Oh, right, Mr. & Mrs. Arndt, for two.

One of the reasons the dominionists are so incredibly stupid for basing their religion on that one passage is that indeed, it only describes the parents as hoarders! Fertile, fecund hoarders of children/arrows at home/in quiver!

Whereas Gibran's poem points out very rightly: we parents are the bows, we have responsibility far, far beyond birthin' 'em and suppressin' 'em.

Once again, as so often, UU services rock!!