 Stephen Ramjewan Let's Talk About It! As you already know, Buddy feels like he's earned the right to say something on every subject, on every occasion. His loving wife, Ms. Lucy, thinks he is just too talkative. Please feel welcome to let him know what you think. Be nice now! Contents | Home | Designed By Did you meet the Meuillars? No? Just click here! |
Let's Talk About Family ...The family is the nucleus of civilization. William J. Durant, American Historian, Essayist (1885-1981) Traditionally, the family structure consists of a married mother and father with their progeny. But, as we all know, it does not stop there. In fact, it did not even start there. We all have ancestors -- parents, grand parents, great grand parents and so on. Our great grand parents also had their parents, grand parents, etc. The lineage goes backwards though the ages and hopefully, will continue into the future as each generation produce their descendants. This brings us to one of the important roles of the family -- procreation. Many of us revere the role, and rightfully so, while some tend to consider it as inconsequential. The introductory paragraphs already confirmed that it is anything but inconsequential. Without procreation, there will be no future! This alone accentuates the value of the family structure, which is by no means simple. The norm is for every family member to be the product of two different family structures. This rationale introduces maternal and paternal lineages, each with their own relationship to other family structures. Likewise, every family member who wishes to participate in the normal process of creating the future is required to join with another family structure to do so. This puts each and every one of us in the middle of very complex maze of relationships. How do we participate? Historically, men foraged for food; they did the hunting and gathering. In more contemporary parlance, they went out to work and brought home the bacon -- they did the laborious work. In that picture, women stayed at home, made the babies and cooked the bacon. That is a gross understatement because the women who stayed at home were involved in something much more important that gathering and hunting. They were actually creating and nurturing the future generation. In many cultures, these roles have changed significantly and are expected to continue changing. The future of humankind depends on it! Observation: Men of previous generations were either very lucky or very smart. They were allowed to sit around, enjoy life and live like the king of the castle while the women did all the household chores. Women of previous generations were "one person" production lines. They produced the meals and the children while tending the crops and searching for new wives to keep their husbands happy. In spite of this unequal division of labor and responsibility, many of the women outlived the men by a significant margin and continue to do so today. [ Contents ] |