All tall, beautiful, magnificent, and splendid building you have seen and known do not exist in isolation. There is a very strong base upon which they are built and mounted on, and that is what makes them stand. That’s their foundation. Our societies can also be understood in the same way. The on-going developments and success stories that different societies and nations have registered are not a result of one individual effort. Their glory results from combinations of skills, interests, talents, values, experiences of many individuals. Therefore, as we begin to dance and enjoy the music let’s not forget what is behind its composition. This is a tale of families, the composers of every society.
A family is the first best fit for every individual. To children born, it is the first school of values, morals, love and a first experience of humanity. It is where an individual is fully accepted and molded in all aspects. It is where talents are identified and supported; it is where learning capabilities are facilitated and it is where minds are first built. The family is the core of every society; its ideas fuel and oil the operations of the whole structure of society. The family’s influence on society can somehow be illustrated in the same way a diet influences life. A healthy life is a manifestation of a good diet which significantly contrasts with a poor diet; which can result in malnutrition and deformities. In short, “we are what we eat!”. Indeed our societies are who we are and it is what our families have instilled in us that shapes our attitudes and how we give and take from society. Our families will always “feed” us with manners, values and habits that will build character and shape our minds up until a later stage when we are able to practice the manners and every aspect of what is sown in us as part of our society. We begin to share love, faith, obedience and integrity that build our societies as we interact with others and also learn a few other values from those around us.
A proper diet is a lifetime plan; and proper attitude and character built in a man from his family is a lifetime investment into how he/she carries herself and influences others and the society as a whole. A family is what gives society its identity, its beliefs and what pushes its development. It is like a base line in decision-making whether in political, spiritual, academic or economic affairs. Throughout the world we see that every society takes the same pattern: a man and woman getting together and forming a family, with many men and women coming together make more families who then come together and form societies which then form villages, counties, nations and then the world at large. For the entire process the foundation is the family. Society is first influenced by the decisions of various families and the effects are later on observed on a national level on large scales.
The family stands as society’s tower of strength in which if we have failing families we would end up with failing societies that would build failing nations which would breed a chaotic world. This truly shows how positively a family influences society by just glancing at our world today.
By Maggie Phiri, a WYA member in Egypt.
