The Home Is the Engineer of Man

The Editor's Corner

A strange saying, this — but true! And if we have grown used to hearing its opposite, then the circle is a closed one... Man engineers the home, and the home engineers man. Every power in a person has its source in the home: our morals, our tastes, our bodies, our consciences, our hearts, our minds — the source of them all is the home. And their proportion to one another depends on the home's engineering, moral and material!

Do we not see people who care for nothing on earth but eating? Those grew up in a home whose kitchen was large and which held no library!

Do we not see people of little taste in everything — in conduct and in the appreciation of beauty? Those grew up in a home ugly in shape, its social life in disorder!

Do we not see people whose consciences are dry, whose hearts are black, whose souls are withered?

Those grew up in a home whose corners were never cleansed of hatred, rancor, falsehood, backbiting, and the laying of plots and snares!

Do we not see people listless and feeble, who have lost all activity — even of the mind — and who would have no spirit left to go on with life were it not for the force of sheer continuance? Those grew up in a home whose air was stifling, whose sunshine was damp, whose kitchen was an afterthought, and whose life was abnormal!...

The design of the home has the closest of connections with the design of the human being who grows up in it. And since balance among people's powers and gifts is one of the finest of human merits, so balance in the design of the home and the distribution of its responsibilities is one of the finest merits of a home!

Nor is it hard for us to draw the picture of that home as we would have that human being be! Here, a library in a quiet corner, for which we choose the books of truth, goodness, and beauty, to nourish the "mind" in man.

Here, artistic pictures, in colors and forms suited to the furniture and the walls, to nourish the "eyes" in man, and behind them the soul and the mind.

Here, selected pieces of music — by others than Abd al-Wahhab and Umm Kulthum, naturally — to nourish the "ears" in man, and behind them the soul and the mind.

Here, perfect conduct on the part of the parents, to nourish conscience and virtue in man!

Here, sound friendships, studied on an educational basis, to nourish the social faculty in man.

Here, harmony, serenity, and independence in the life of the home, to nourish individuality, self-reliance, and the spirit of freedom in man.

Here, a kitchen that knows its task is not merely "getting the duty done," but the building of sound bodies — bone, flesh, and skin...

Here, the garden for the refreshment of the soul; and here, the constant vigil of two parents who know that their task does not end with giving life to a new creature, but begins at that moment, to end only when that creature has become a human being — and a human being living in the twentieth century!...

All this can be only in the home — and in the home prepared to accomplish all this. As for the houses that are mere animal pens, it is enough that their result should be this chaos entrenched in every side of our life. The home is the engineer of man! When, then, shall we have for this "engineer" competent engineers, who know what the ideal human being ought to be, so that they may create for him that ideal engineer we have called the home?