Anam Cara

Home as the Cradle of Destiny

There are many places of power in the world: the Pentagon, the Kremlin, the Vatican. Yet the most powerful place of all barely draws attention to itself. This is the family home. One evening, I remember going for a walk. As I came home, the light was ebbing slowly. As the black tide of night was filling the valley, lights began to come on in the houses. The little lights seemed so fragile against the onrush of the night. This has always remained with me as an image of the vulnerability of human presence against the darkness of anonymity. Anywhere the tenderness gathers itself, life often seems to assemble in threat about its nest. This is why all the major thresholds in human life have blessing structures around them in the religious traditions: birth, initiation, illness, marriage, and death. There is a fragility and pathos in light when darkness encircles it. When you drive through a village at evening and the lights come on before the curtains are drawn, for a second you are allowed a glimpse into individual homes. The inhabitants become visible as they move about or sit down together to dinner. Within these walls a unique set of lives is framed and formed. Behind the guise of normal interaction, they are having a huge influence on the hearts and minds of each other. While the home may be a powerful cradle influencing mind and personality, the lack of home is also a huge influence. So many children in poverty-stricken areas are homeless. Some are in institutional care. Imagine how difficult it must be for these little vulnerable ones to develop minds and hearts where they can rest and feel the warmth and shelter of self-belonging. Being deprived of intimate shelter at such a crucial time must cast a lonesome shadow over their future struggle to belong within society.