We’re greeted instead by two parents living in a consumer culture that demands they make it on their own. They can’t possibly give us what we expect, because two exhausted people can’t be a village. This is our ordinary world, insufficient from our first breath. So childhood becomes a call to adventure, a call to solve an unsolvable problem: how do I turn two people into the village my mind and heart ache for?

Her little egocentric mind whispers, Look at all this love. It must be because of me. I must be precious. And she's right. Not just because she's special, but because everyone is. That’s what the village knows: preciousness isn't something you earn; it's something you're born with. And the village's most important job is to never let you forget it. In Kai's village, this sense of preciousness isn't reserved for fellow clan. It extends to all of it—every living thing.