Pre-reading questions:
1) What is the best environment to raise a family in (e.g. apartment, village, etc)?
2) Why do marriage and family matter?
3) Is there anything funny or different about your family?
4) Does someone in your family maintain a family tree? How far back can you trace your family history?
Family is the basic cell of a society. Every child has his mother and his father who, together, make up a family. The mother gives the child nutrition and love, the father gives the child protection and wisdom. Without a family, the child would be lost and unable to live independently until he or she is an adult.
The child first develops physically, then emotionally, intellectually, and finally spiritually. In order to develop in all areas, it is not enough to provide the child with food only. The child needs to be given space for playing, learning, and maturing1. The child also connects parents to each other and commits2 them to a common life that is to be full of love. In such an environment, the child will be loving, good, and obedient. If love is missing, he is defiant3 and angry. He needs attention and urges for love. When a child is raised with love and becomes an adult, he can set up his own family, and the whole process is repeated constantly.
Young people must be ready to set up a family in order to create functional families. They should be mature, the family should be their priority and, of course, they should honour and love each other. Gradually, the family becomes a place where there is not only room for individuals but where the needs of both the child and the parents are ensured. One must be able to adapt and compromise but not only at the expense of4 one family member. An unselfish person wants to do things for others, not just for himself. Egoism gradually disappears and he/she becomes a better person. The more a person gives away for others, the more love is given in return. Thus, the person begins to understand spirituality, becomes less dependent on strict calculations and more dependent on values like satisfaction, comfort, peace, and love. So the family is not only formal, but it is a voluntary commitment for life. A young person should have an idea of what his ideal partner is, and then he/she can find him/her and stay with the partner for their whole life. Some people even marry for money, and in such cases many marriages end up in disagreement and divorce.
A huge family, composed of individual families, forms actually a human society. The base of this colossus is one small cell – the family. All beautiful family attributes should also apply to a human society. Even a human society should be characterized by the sacrifice5 of the individual for the common good, and society should provide the individual with the government of peace and love. Society should not be based on negative values such as egoism, individualism, profitability, greed, despair, or slyness6. It should aim at love and well-being for everyone which cannot be achieved by reason and human ego but by pure hearts.
Vocabulary: 1 dospievanie – dospívání, zrání; 2 zaviazať – zavázat; 3 vzdorovitý; 4 na úkor; 5 obetavosť – obětavost; 6 chytráckosť – prohnanost
