“Humans, famously the only animal without a nature.“
I’ve mentioned those words a few times, and they’ve only grown more relevant. This evening I had a long conversation about the...opposite of the ugliness of antinatalism.
I think my perspective on why having children is the right thing to do can be boiled down simply; I’m not really sure what else there is to do that’s as Good (capital G).
Clearly, yes, it is costly and taxing emotionally, temporally, physically, spiritually. And if I chose not to have children I’d have far more time for naps and travelling to places I’d honestly like to travel to and likely won’t. But, is that the point of life? Is that my nature? To seek pleasure and expand my experience personally?
I’ve mentioned those words a few times, and they’ve only grown more relevant. This evening I had a long conversation about the...opposite of the ugliness of antinatalism.
I think my perspective on why having children is the right thing to do can be boiled down simply; I’m not really sure what else there is to do that’s as Good (capital G).
Clearly, yes, it is costly and taxing emotionally, temporally, physically, spiritually. And if I chose not to have children I’d have far more time for naps and travelling to places I’d honestly like to travel to and likely won’t. But, is that the point of life? Is that my nature? To seek pleasure and expand my experience personally?
Is life, this absolutely surreal and beautiful dream, about accrueing things and experiences that are pleasurable to me, a soft-footed white person of means? I mean, maybe. That’s not -so- bad of an idea. But it all seems a bit stranger than that, a bit harder to pin down. Some of the most magnificent things that I’ve experienced in my life were kind of horrible, at least painful.
The death of my dog(s), of my grandparents, the ending of relationships, goodbyes, illnesses, none of these things were sand between my toes but none of them are things I’d trade for a trip to the beach because they made me, seeing them go would be tantamount to suicide.
I thought about ending the post there, but I think it’s worth adding a caveat that lives lived without children, chosen or otherwise, are just as full of Grace and dignity as those with them. All human life is such. No person is without Grace and dignity and beauty and purpose and meaning and truth.
