THE MENSCH

This is an enigma. After all, bringing up children is quite an adventure. I'm not talking about the logistics, the lack of sleep, trying to make sense of tears or even the confusion that can arise from inventing a new ecosystem. What interests me most, as is often the case, is the thorny issue of transmission. What do we want to pass on and why? Of course, there are the implicit transmissions, the silent heritage that escapes us, all those "in spite of ourselves" that we don't always manage to control. But there are also our so-called values, our convictions, the things we decided to believe in a long time ago, or conversely, the things we abandoned to feel more aligned. How do we choose? How do we know if what we say to our children is right? For several months, I've wondered how best to help a child grow up in a world like ours which has been plagued by mediocrity, abuse of power, vengeance, injustice, and perversity. As is the case in times like these, I think back to the term 'mensch.' In German, mensch means "human being" in the broadest sense. In Yiddish, the term has acquired a moral connotation and a singular poetry. A mensch is a person worthy of admiration, possessing a noble character, but this nobility is not superiority; on the contrary, it is the ordinary hero, capable of surpassing himself and acting as he should, without claiming honors. It is the praise of reliability and broad love. In short, to be a mensch is to be a good person. As if grammar preceded our morals, "mensch" is neutral in German and is used for both men and women. It is a way of understanding life and dealing with its twists and turns. I don't know exactly how you do it, but I do know that it's what I whisper to James, my son, every morning. "Be a mensch, my son, and turn the world upside down with your gentleness."

I hope you have a wonderful day ahead of you.

Marie Robert is an author and philosophy teacher. As the head of Montessori schools, she created @philosophyissexy to share her philosophical reflections daily.

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