The Eagle and the Kite
There be strangeness here and there. First cads start defending marriage, now Elihu (ne Frost) wants kids. Naturally, my view is informed by the fact that I have three, three!, daughters, but I can’t help but think that the cads might mend some of the broken bits. Whereas the Boomers often meandered between sanguine and jubilant with regard to the excesses of their children, the resulting uncomfortable consequences, consequences that the Boomers themselves mostly avoided, have produced a subset of men and women determined not to go gallivanting along as grasshoppers and instead follow the ant. At least eventually. For some it’s a planned grasshopper to ant metamorphosis. The perils of lonely winters and possibility of starvation are a tangible futures and not just hypotheticals.
But it is not a scarcity mentality that I see coloring the future so much as it is the stories that purposeful fathers, men versed in destruction and dissolution, will tell their daughters. Misconceptions shall always be with us, just as a propensity to believe pretty lies has always been with us, but that does not preclude the destruction of pedestals. Nurture is crucial; nature always wins. Better to be cognizant of that harsh mistress than blindly raise harsh mistresses.
An eagle, overwhelmed with sorrow, sat upon the branches of a tree, in company with a Kite. Why, said the Kite, do I see you with such a rueful look? I seek, she replied, for a mate suitable for me, and am not able to find one. Take me, returned the Kite, I am much stronger than you are. Why, are you able to secure the means of living by your plunder? Well, I have often caught and carried away an ostrich in my talons.The Eagle, persuaded by these words, accepted him as her mate.
Shortly after the nuptials, the Eagle said:Fly off and bring me back the ostrich you promised me. The Kite, soaring aloft into the air, brought back the shabbiest possible mouse. Is this, said the Eagle,the faithful fulfillment of your promise to me? The Kite replied: That I might attain your royal hand, there is nothing that I would not have promised, however much I knew that I must fail in the performance.
It’s Dalrock’s fault.
Game in its original iteration has been a Generation X thing. People my age grew up with idiotic, irresponsible, untrustworthy parents and other adults. Those that didn’t get divorced probably should have. A lot of young guys came to adulthood with the idea that marriage was something to be entered into with great care, if at all, and it would be stupid to do so if you weren’t a master of women. Millenials have grown up in a much more child-friendly environment with caring, concerned parents. Getting married and having kids seems much more positive and likely to succeed to them.
I’m also Gen x and saw firsthand how horrible some of my friends households were. Materially, they were successful enough, but they were emotional wastelands.