Fishing Village

I was thinking about the Ade Ileke about the abandoned fishing village, the "quryah" (town) whose nets were torn. I began thinking about the adage that "It takes a whole village...", and I thought of villages where children were abused and deceived rather than educated...
Then I thought of all the times I had seen articles about Little League parents going ballistic at their childrens' games...
I thought of all the bad examples we set.

Competition. There seems to be a difference of opinion about competition: some hold it is bad, some good. It seems all a matter of how we approach it. When I was young, we always shook hands with the other teams and the winners were congratulated. The losers were told they played well and spirited, and better luck next time.
Competition was never seen as "winner take all". It was an educational process where we first respected each other as people; second respected each others' abilities; third if we won, we were humble in public (although we might have let loose later when we were just with our mates), and fourth if we lost, we did not denigrate the other team and we resolved to improve our own efforts.
We were kids!
There was Glory enough for everyone, since the Praise came from Parents and Friends!

Later, in what we foppishly call "The Real World", Glory has diminished, and there is not enough Glory to go around, and life is "winner take all".
Glory has its surrogates: Money and Power and Celebrity, and even though it seems there is more and more of each surrogate, the percentage of the population with any Glory is small, making it an item easily controlled... and controlling.

We must return to unlimited Glory:
Fully respect each other and see God in each and every human being and be virtuous, temperate, and moderate. Then Glory is as endless as is our love for God and Mankind.

Live in Villages with mended nets.
Inhabit villages where everyone lends a hand.
Be a village where the necessary tools are at hand for all.
Replenish the wells with pure water, the libraries with books, and beat our swords into ploughshares.

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