Oy

For better or worse, I have observed and experienced quite a few of the extremes of human behavior during the past few weeks, specifically in terms of how individuals relate to themselves and those around them. Truth be told (I'm sorry for being so vague about the details, but frankly, I don't want to be dragged back into the situation), I feel like I've survived a hurricane. These experiences of late have confirmed a theory that I've held for quite some time: Many people take on some degree of insanity coinciding with their producing and rearing children.

I believe the primary cause of this insanity to be the fact that such persons have not worked out who they are as people...their faults, their obsessions, their preferences. Moreover, even if they have worked some of these things out, they feel themselves to be inadequate for parenthood. As a result, both sets of persons substitute an ideal for who and what they think they should be. Such ideals can range from something as serious as an embracement of fundamentalism as a substitute for developing a true and deep moral philosophy, to something as silly as constantly barking at one's children in German in the hopes that they'll be bilingual and culturally aware.

The problem, of course, is that both behaviors, again, are based upon an ideal and not a reality. Ideals can only last for so long. Fundamentalism is a porous ideology in need of constant reinforcement, and full of inner-turmoil. Barking at one's children in a foreign language is going to eventually result in them telling the parent to "fuchen ze oft'. I suppose that the later sentiment is the heart of the matter: Creating an ideal persona rather than being a genuine and honest human, it seems to me, is bound to spark resentment in the progeny and frustration in the parent.

That's all the preaching I care to do today.

rickyboy