Alpha Girl (linked through Minnow's page) recently talked about changing careers to work with babies in hospitals. My sister has been working in hospitals and studying nursing and such for some time so I decided to ask her about that particular job prospect. My sister's response was something to the effect of:
"Why not take care of the elderly? It's practically the same thing. Nurses are being discouraged away from pediatrics because the baby boom generation is hitting retirement age and there are a lot more old folks than babies."
I told her that I think Alpha is intent on being with babies. It got me thinking about how I have worried about having more people on earth than the planet can support, but I have also had this thought:
If the smart people of the world are the ones avoiding having kids then who does that leave to continue the human endeavor?
I think it is funny how people ask me how many kids I have and they think of 3 as a lot of kids. They say, "Wow, you're breeding like crazy." I really wouldn't expect this reaction in Utah. UTAH!
So, true, I have probably doomed my kids to live in a ridiculous and dangerous world but I see them as the hope of their time. The other day I took my kids to the school where my wife works so she could watch them while I went and applied for another job and I returned to find that they had drawn some pictures. The pictures were mostly of banana slugs, as usual. My kids love drawing banana slugs. Probably because they are easy to draw: an oblong shape with those stalky antenna things. But my two year old daughter had done a special drawing.
I said, "What is this?"
Answer, "It's a happy guy in jail." (a red smiley face behind a lot of parallel yellow lines)
And I thought, "This is probably the best prepared for our world as she can be at two years." She's on track and the best hope we've got, as far as I'm concerned.
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3 comments:
I feel the same way when I tell people how many kids I have. And much like Royal Tenenbaum, almost feel compelled to explain to them that the third isn't really mine. That I've stepped into the role of father because he's so freakin' cute (oh yeah, and his biological father is an asshole. Speaking of Royal Tenenbaum I actually don't know if he's an asshole, or really more a son of a bitch).
I was having this conversation the other day...It is funny that the when it comes to Darwin and Natural Selection, the stupidest people have an advantage...and the rest of us end up footing the bill for their offspring. :)
On another note, I think I would be a better father if all I had to do was sire young ones and not raise them...
And finally, I find myself doing the same thing when I tell people I have 6 kids..."the first four were from my wife's first marriage and we have two together."
I love the idea of kids as hope. It can seem cliched until you are around them and then, well, it just isn't, because kids truely make things seem amazing and possible. I'm sure this is even more so when they are your own--or perhaps I have a romantic view of kids, because I always get to hang out w/ them, but don't have to take any responsibility for them.
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