I got to hold little Margaret during the Arts Council concert Sunday.  She’s five weeks old and absolutely adorable.  It had been a long time since I’d held a baby, and if Margaret hadn’t been asleep she probably wouldn’t have put up with it.  But since she didn’t know who was holding her, everything was fine.

The first baby I ever held – more than 26 years ago – was Lori’s and my first son, William.  We had no idea what to do with a baby, but somehow we figured it out.  Lori and I went on to have two more children, Angela and Thomas.  With each one parenting got easier, but it never got easy.

Before we became parents, Lori and I thought we knew everything about raising children.  Parenting seemed simple and straight-forward.  Nobody, after all, knows more about being a parent than someone who’s never had a child.  It all seems so simple when it’s abstract, when there are no dirty diapers, no sleepless nights, no croup or colic.

But in truth nobody knows more about being a parent than someone who HAS been one.  Parenting is a skill that develops gradually through experience.  I admire Margaret’s parents for undertaking this noble task, envy them their youth (babies suck that out of us quickly), and I can’t help but ponder the challenges and wonders that await them.

As I handed Margaret back to her mom I felt a familiar parental urge stir within me – I wanted as good a future for Margaret as I do for my own children, and I imagine most people – not just parents – feel the same about the children around them.

Over the years I’ve had opportunities to work with children in various ways.  I’m proud to be a Teammates mentor and I was happy to take part in a Career Day for area students last week.  One thing I try to tell young people is that most of the adults around them want them to succeed, and will help them if they can (and I’ve found that not all kids, unfortunately, have this form of support).

It’s a cliché that ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ but friends and neighbors do play an important role in our children’s lives – just look at how much time and money we invest in schools, in playgrounds, and in organizations like scouts and church groups.

I saw a very good example of this last Friday when local veterans partnered with the school for the annual Veteran’s Day program.  And as I looked at the students’ faces, I felt that commitment to their future that so many of us share.

The featured speaker was career Air Force veteran Clyde Stuhr of Petersburg.  Clyde’s theme was the importance of having one another’s backs, whether in the military or in civilian life.  I know first-hand how much our veterans have their neighbors’ backs – earlier this year they helped send our son Thomas and us to Washington D.C. for the national Voice of Democracy event.  But it isn’t just veterans – pretty much everyone in a small town has each other’s backs.  That’s one of the attractions of living in a community like Albion.

Holding little Margaret helped remind me that we are all part of a large and diverse family, bonded together by a shared commitment to our own families, to our community and to our future.  For without that commitment, there would be no future.  But so long as we have each other’s backs – especially our children’s – our future looks pretty good…