In addition to that we need a section on
The Garden As Prep School
Today we go through phases in life in which we go locally to school, and then go away to college (in some cases), all with the knowledge and intent that we are preparing for life in the larger world.
We form and take with us many friendships with fellow students and teachers, and many of those last the rest of our lives. But we never should lose sight that the schooling is a preparatory phase that will not last forever, and that our reason for being their is to learn how to stand on our own feet and form our own families and stable communities.
The professors and the staff of the "College" do have a longer-lasting relationship that turns out to be weekly or daily and is open ended as to time, and some of the students will even be incorporated into the College staff and instructors.
But everyone keeps a clear eye on the goal that for most this is a preparatory phase, abs that the goal of happy living for the community requires that its mission be understood and respected, so that each fulfills his or her appropriate role.
Just like in AFDiA the character of Hedeia had ti be saved from the storm, it's not in the nature of life that every individual can live and act as if there are no outside threats to their continued happiness.
It may or may not take a village to raise a child, but it takes a community to support the individual in a world where there are many organized opponents who are not interested in our happiness, and who in fact see it as a threat.
The Garden as a Refuge complements and supports the role of the Garden as a School, and there are other roles that are necessary as well. But none of these roles stand alone, and if we focus on one aspect exclusively we are like Polyaenus spending all his time on his diagrams while the rest of life passes him by and smashes those diagrams.
