Good question.
When I was a teenager and well into my 20s, I declared I wouldn't be having any. The future seemed bleak, there were already too many people, why bring more into it? I was sure I'd terminate any pregnancy.
Then I turned 30. I can't say I felt the ticking of any clock, but I did feel a subtle, fundamental shift: I suspected that I wouldn't terminate a pregnancy.
Then I met C... and his family. The first time I came to their village, his parents and sister were at the station to meet me off the train, and his brother and his brother's girlfriend were waiting back at the house where we all had cake and tea. At midnight.
Even not understanding a word, the closeness of this family was palpable. I looked at everyone chatting and laughing easily, and imagined how proud C's parents must be of their children.
For the first time ever, I thought it would be nice to have a family of my own.
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Last year a friend of mine wrote an article questioning how green it is to have kids.
I work for environmental organizations. I know humanity is stripping the planet bare. I know that having a child is the single worst thing I could ever do footprint-wise. I actually have little hope for the future of most nature, entirely because of human overpopulation. Yet I still reproduced, twice. And there's a chance I may even do so again.
I do worry about the future - the possibility of war, of famine, of miserable toiling to survive ... the realities of many places today, and most generations prior to my own. I really do feel like I'm living in this little bubble of peace and luxury, a bubble that will soon pop to join the vast majority of experiences in the rest of human history.
So why did I have kids then, adding to the number of people and subjecting them to suffer the consequences of climate change and other environmental upheavals?
In her article, my friend says that when she posed the same question, she was met with resounding silence.
In trying to answer her question, I too find myself mute. I wrote the above months ago, but have come up with nothing more than I wanted a family. And the sure knowledge that despite knowing how environmentally unfriendly our species is, despite understanding the seriousness of overpopulation, despite my worries about the future, I will never, not for a single second, regret or feel guilt for my kids' existence, no matter how many I have.
Selfish genes indeed.
Snickerdoodle bars
10 years ago
2 comments:
That's the best and most inspirational answer yet my dear. x
Many times in the history of our Species times have seemed tough and the future bleak. The fact that we are here now is only due to a massive line of ancestors who manage to have children who survived in all sorts of circumstances. Many things they experienced would overwhelm this current "soft" generation who haven't had to experience great suffering or frequent war or disease like the black plague. Still they managed to have children. These children in time, managed to improve the circumstances, create healthcare, create education and government systems, discover science and lift our species higher.
Previous generations, it could be argued didn't have the choice we do. However we are no better placed at forecasting the future then they were.
Each generation makes do with the circumstances in which they find themselves.
It is our responsibility and choice to let the next generation have its turn to exists, experience this amazing thing called life, and to discover and shape the world.
This in my opinion, is why we should have kids.
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