As Grandparents, you have the long view. You are rich in experience and wisdom that has been accumulated over many years. You also see the horizons of life. This is an advantage. You see that good things tend to operate on “a long clock”. Bad things operate on a short clock.
A redwood cedar can be cut down in a matter of minutes and no amount of glue can restore it. What took two-thousand years to grow is suddenly gone.
A long-standing, moral culture can be brought down quickly as well. It makes sense to try to prevent it, but once the damage is done we have two choices: build anew or despair.
Grandchildren are significant parts of a “build anew” strategy. They are hope incarnate. They can be the foundations of future good things.
When grandparents see this and act with hope, they build anew, not with the sweat of their brows or the strength of their backs but with the power of the long view, deep hope, and a recognition that what they plant in their old age may bear more fruit than many things they did when they were young and vigorous.
And so it is that we are engaged in a mission, passing on the good, noble, lasting virtues accumulated over time.
Yes we may need to plant a whole new forest, a new culture. We could focus on the death of good at the hands of evil. Or we can build something strong and holy in its place – something that will last, something that will be there to support generations to come. And so we do not despair but build in hope.
It takes people with a long view to plant something they will never see full-grown. Grandparents with hope will influence the future — Grandly.
Pili Galvan-Abouchaar is the director of Grandly and lives in Lansing, Michigan.
Copyright © 2019 Grandly: The Strategic Grandparents Club.