Family Responsibility

Kenya

“Utterly alone on an Island, confronted by a giant eland with a scarred face protecting his herd of females and young, I got the message loud and clear. Slowly I looked around for the nearest tree, then I turned back to face him. We looked deeply into the other’s eyes. He was sizing me up. Intimidated and humble, I tried to mentally convey to him that I was no threat. Would he be gracious? Only one human on this land, and he was defenceless. Fortunately, we had one thing in common that I could empathize with – responsibility!”  Breaking Free- Denis Hickey

!!!!Warning!!!! This blog about family responsibility contains some strong language.

I understand the responsibility that resulted in that buck having scars on his face. The drive to fight for, corral and protect, his very own harem and the ensuing family responsibility. Perhaps it is this same drive in the human male that seeks to produce a family dynasty. And the female of the human species? Maybe this male drive is what attracts her; as it means security, wealth, food and a strong family unit.

One obvious answer is sex; nature moving forward through sex with offspring as the result. The whole world revolving on an endless carousel of fighting and fucking. Deny it as we may, it is clear the World turns on the world’s turn ons: greed, fighting and sex. Everything else is just some form of this but pompously ascribed with some higher meaning: acquisitions, pre-emptive strike, making love.

Although families are often planned these days, sex still equals children. Isn’t it funny how we talk about babies and breastfeeding and children and toddlers and teenagers but never about the sex that brought each and every generation about for the last 4 billion years. We are the evolutionary by-product of five billion fucks.

Family comes into being through a few minutes of fornication and they are there for the rest of our lives. We never spend much time thinking about how they came about as we are too busy loving them and watching them grow and evolve into little people to be too concerned about their sticky origins. We put all our hopes and desires on them and hope that they will do more than we did and avoid the pitfalls and mistakes that we made.

Our children become our world and we treasure the precious time we have with them. They are the most enjoyable responsibility in the world. Amid all the sham and drudgery of the world, our children are an oasis of love that unites us and gives us the strength to ‘keep swimming’ – just like the sperm did towards the Great Egg in the beginning of it all.