We and the children we are raising are a very privileged people. Compared to history, the entire modern world is. The consumption of too much food and too unhealthy of food is now a bigger global crisis than is lack of food.

It is not okay that even one person starve to death, but far fewer would if we led and raised a a generation who was wise enough to accept their privilege to give up privilege.

As a modern people we and our children are privileged with more stuff, activity, money, and information than any people in history.

This week I challenge you to restrain yourself by giving up some of that privilege in order to accept greater privileges such as those listed below:

• The privilege of the intellectual like Thomas Jefferson to receive a self-directed, mentor-inspired education built on reading, discussing, and writing.
• The privilege of the historic monk to choose silence, solitude, physical labor, and prayer.
• The privilege of the well-landed to grow and eat diverse, nutritious, local food.
• The privilege of the renaissance man to explore invention, art, music, and theatre.
• The privilege of the house wife and country school teacher to focus his or her energies on a small room or house full of children.
• The privilege of the farm child to have days filled with manual labor, play, and country frolics.

Each of these privileges come with both hard work and restraint that may not seem like a privilege to many in the modern world but hold many glorious benefits when stewarded well.