A community is built over numerous generations. With every generation the leaders of that generation become stronger and wiser and then pass on their knowledge to the generation coming in behind them. This sharing of knowledge helps kick start the next round of leaders and allow them to gain knowledge which will then be passed on to the generation after them. This ongoing sharing of knowledge will continue through the generations.

This knowledge can be shared in many ways. For example, through the telling of stories, like when your parents or grandparents tell you a story about something they did when they were growing up. This story they have shared will teach you what the consequence of their action was and what they learnt from that. Another way knowledge can be passed down is just simply by observing. Observing anything, it could be a bird or a group of people just talking. By observing you can learn a lot. You can learn the body language of others and what it means, and you can learn about the crazy things people have done before and what happened after it. You can also learn a lot more just by observing.

Storytelling and observation are just two ways knowledge can be passed down and shared with others. There are still many other ways. Some of these ways can be verbal, while others can be non-verbal or a mix. But it doesn’t really matter where the knowledge has come from, only that the knowledge of previous generations has been passed down to the emerging generation to make them stronger as they will be the next leaders of their community and maybe the world.

You may be asking yourself, ‘why does this matter?’. Well, it matters because to understand a rural community and the knowledge we have, you must understand how that knowledge can be shared so that you, yourself can share your knowledge with those leaders coming in behind you. But even with this knowledge, what people take from the knowledge shared is different for everyone which makes it diverse. The world as it is known is a very diverse place. Everywhere you go it is different with a different community and a different history.

Having diversity in a rural community will allow their emerging leaders to all be different from one another, whether it be in their knowledge, in their background, or how they grew up. But having a diverse group of leaders will help strengthen communities, especially rural communities, and everyone who has had different life experiences. Whether it be growing up on a farm or in town, surrounded by their friends, or whether it be that their family was encouraging and supported them, or their family just ignored them and never encouraged them. Either way, everyone is different and that means their way of thinking is different. Without this difference the world would not evolve, and we would be stuck living the same way forever.

While with this diversity in those leaders, the world, and communities are forever evolving and overcoming obstacles that come their way. This diversity is what builds a rural community and strengthens it, as everyone is reliant on each other. So, if the leaders are the same and there is no diversity between them, the community will just fall apart. Therefore, having diverse leaders in a community, especially a rural one will strengthen it because they can build on each other and strive together for greatness.