(no subject)
Whilst in the showers just now, a question struck me. Perhaps it was the subconscious thought about the first month celebration of Da Jie's daughter Chloe next week, I don't know, but this was the thought: Why do people have children? Really curious, eh?
At first, I had been having an imaginary conversation with an imaginary someone about how everything we do in our lives should not revolve singularly around ourselves and our time but around people in the following generations too and how this is exactly how we've come to be privileged with inventions that bring so much convenience to our lives and what a good and noble thing that is!
And then, as though that person had, in this imaginary conversation, rebutted me, this thought came: Then why have children in the first place? I was stumped for a moment and began to think. I thought about how the Chinese used to pine for sons to "chuan zong jie dai" or pass on the surname/legacy of a family, which also goes for many other cultures too. But that bring us back to a related question: Why do we want to pass "legacies" on? Are we no different from other animals after all? Why do we have this instinctive desire to want to be "survived by" another human being? Is it egotism?
I don't know what it is about this desire for our species to "survive" because so what if we didn't? So what if we were the last generation of people? How is that going to matter? Think about it: You can't say that our progress has been a waste because there have been people who have tasted their success(es) and passed them on so that others may enjoy it too. You cant say that there's still so much we haven't done because, really, would that still matter if we were all dead anyway? We'd all either be too busy being purged of our sins in purgatory, praising God and enjoying our time in heaven or suffering in hell.
Also, other than our successes and progress, think of those who still suffer from injustice, hunger and cold. There's been generation after generation undergoing pain like that in some places and yet people outside do nothing about it and people inside continue to have babies. WHY? I think that is one of the greatest mysteries ever.
At first, I had been having an imaginary conversation with an imaginary someone about how everything we do in our lives should not revolve singularly around ourselves and our time but around people in the following generations too and how this is exactly how we've come to be privileged with inventions that bring so much convenience to our lives and what a good and noble thing that is!
And then, as though that person had, in this imaginary conversation, rebutted me, this thought came: Then why have children in the first place? I was stumped for a moment and began to think. I thought about how the Chinese used to pine for sons to "chuan zong jie dai" or pass on the surname/legacy of a family, which also goes for many other cultures too. But that bring us back to a related question: Why do we want to pass "legacies" on? Are we no different from other animals after all? Why do we have this instinctive desire to want to be "survived by" another human being? Is it egotism?
I don't know what it is about this desire for our species to "survive" because so what if we didn't? So what if we were the last generation of people? How is that going to matter? Think about it: You can't say that our progress has been a waste because there have been people who have tasted their success(es) and passed them on so that others may enjoy it too. You cant say that there's still so much we haven't done because, really, would that still matter if we were all dead anyway? We'd all either be too busy being purged of our sins in purgatory, praising God and enjoying our time in heaven or suffering in hell.
Also, other than our successes and progress, think of those who still suffer from injustice, hunger and cold. There's been generation after generation undergoing pain like that in some places and yet people outside do nothing about it and people inside continue to have babies. WHY? I think that is one of the greatest mysteries ever.