“God’s in His heaven. All’s right with the world.”
The quote comes from a well-known poem by Robert Browning, “Pippa Passes.” But we are all aware that, no matter how many wonders surround us, all is NOT right with the world. So the real question becomes, What can you do to help make the world better?
If you’re recycling, if you don’t litter, and if you follow all the other suggestions for what is usually (if erroneously) referred to as “ecology” to help fight global warming, you’re doing something.
If you get out and vote for the candidates you think will help improve the state of things in America and in your little corner of it, instead of staying home and sitting on your behind and merely griping, you’re doing something.
If you make an effort to get to know your neighbors and to help them in their times of trouble, if only to lend a sympathetic ear if there is nothing practical you can do for them, you’re doing something.
If you raise your children to have respect for the customs of people from different cultures and different backgrounds, and to see them as fellow inhabitants of this planet and fellow citizens of your city or town, and not as “strange” or “different,” not to think of them as “others,” then you’re doing something.
We here at AcuteByDesign are doing something, too. While we publish books on a variety of topics, our main thrust always has been to promote muticulturalism in our publications, and especially for children. We have two main aims:
1 – To offer people, but especially children, books about people they can relate to because the books are about people/children who look like them—Black (The Legend of Meecheli, The Dance of the Antelope, and others), Native American (Just Indian) Latino (Abuelita’s Tree, Moving Day for Alex), and hopefully soon, when we find the right books, other cultures as well. We even have a book about a reindeer who is a “special needs” reindeer (Heartfelt, the Special Reindeer)! All these are available at www.acutebydesign.com/shop
2 – With those same books, to offer people, but especially children, who come from the mainstream White background, books about people who are of a different ethnic background but who have similar drives and desires to the reader—not so different after all. Kipling wrote, “The colonel’s lady and Judy O’Grady are sisters under the skin.” We here at AbyD would posit that it goes even deeper than that, that the White girl sitting in the schoolroom, the Black girl seated at the desk in front of her, and the Native American classmate at the next desk are all sisters under the skin. And we hope our books help at least a little bit to bring these kids, of whatever ethnic background, to that realization.
To come back to the quote we started out with, yes, “God’s in His heaven,” but we suspect He’s leaving it to us to sort out the issues we’ve created by seeing people whose skin color or customs are different from ours as the “other.” And no, all’s NOT “right with the world,” but we can all make a conscious effort to work on that. From global warming to politics to how we act with people who are “different”—if their skin tone is different from ours or if they are “special needs” individuals—we can each take steps to help set the world in a better direction.
We’re doing our part…and our books are “good reads,” too. (Again, find them at https://www.acutebydesign.com/shop.)
We hope you agree.