Generation to Generation

Picked this up from a homeschooler's blog. I like the part where Antoine de Saint-Exupery writes about knowledge and ideals that are "wordless and full of wonder," and the importance of living "not by things, but by the meanings of things."

In a house which becomes a home, one hands down and another takes up the heritage of mind and heart, laughter and tears, musings and deeds.
Love, like a carefully loaded ship, crosses the gulf between the generations.
Therefore we do not neglect the ceremonies of our passage: when we wed, when we die, and when we are blessed with a child;
When we depart and when we return; when we plant and when we harvest.
Let us bring up our children. It is not the place of some official to hand to them their heritage.
If others impart to our children our knowledge and ideals, they will lose all of us that is wordless and full of wonder.
Let us build memories in our children, lest they drag out joyless lives, less they allow treasures to be lost because they have not been given the keys.
We live, not by things, but by the meanings of things. It is needful to transmit the passwords from generation to generation.
ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPERY