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Saturday, June 18, 2011

Unfather's Day...

Tomorrow, June 19th 2011, is designated as "Father's Day". I am mildly off-put by these "days" mainly because they have...over time...become primarily excuses for selling crap. No disrespect to anyone or anything but jeez...spare me. If you cared for your dad or your mom...great honor and respect them continuously and diligently. The juvenile and commercialized artificial "day" just sort of leaves me cold.

The biological ability to become a parent is the way we are constructed and all humans that are biologically intact can potentially produce offspring. The time has long passed when adding to the human population of the world was anything to celebrate. For those of you that have had positive and supportive experiences because of someone or several someone's acting in the role of father...great...celebrate and acknowledge that...

I want to acknowledge the contribution of those that have foregone the biological fathering role. I want to celebrate and express gratitude to those who have had the caring to not increase the human population on the planet...those who have no biological children. Thank you for not contributing to the ranks of the most devastating and destructive animal the world has ever seen (and may not survive)...human animals.

So, this Sunday...in addition to honoring your personal positive father figure please also honor all the human males that have been kind enough and brave enough and caring enough to not biologically father children. The absolute best thing that can be done for the planet and all living things on the planet is to reduce the number of humans. Honor those real father figures that care enough not to add to the devastation of our planet. Thanks guys!

8 comments:

Bea Elliott said...

"The time has long passed when adding to the human population of the world was anything to celebrate." I know. Seems that 6.7 billion "miracles" is about enough for a long while! :/

And I will confess that as my years advance I'm less and less enamored by the praises given to patriarchal figures. No offense intended to the good "guys" out there. But everything in "his"tory is so seeped in the male-dominant-provider-protector-giver-ad nausea that I often suffer "great-father" overload!

I'd much rather appreciate and admire people for who they are excluding any pre-determined social significance and card-buying mandates.

My criteria? What do you care about? And what are you doing to make a positive difference? Sadly a great number of the "dad heroes" will name their favorite sports team and select a nice easy chair to cheer them on. :(

I always loved the saying that a good father loves the mother of his children. Perhaps it could also be said that a good father loves the mother of us all. Meaning the Earth and all her inhabitants. Yes, that would be a very good father for sure- With no gifts required to acknowledge such! ;)

Laloofah said...

Bravo!! BW (a "father" only to many rescued critters) read your post along with me. When he finished he turned to me, beaming, and said, "Hey, that means me!" LOL So we did an Unfather's Day Eve fist bump to celebrate, and to you BW says, "Thank you!"

You'll appreciate a vegan friend of mine who also completely agrees with you and Bea, and so as a 30th birthday gift to himself a few years ago, got a vasectomy. :-) He and BW and you, dear veganelder, are definitely very good fathers according to Bea's standard, which I think is a brilliant one! So Happy Unfather's Day to you, too!

veganelder said...

Thank you Bea for your comment. I'm with you, caring for and acting on behalf of living beings and the planet is the goal to achieve...the results are gift enough.

veganelder said...

Thank you Laloofah for commenting. Congrats and thanks to BW!! Y'all have a cool one in Colorado for me. :-)

Annie said...

Reading through your blog...I'm new to the Blog OK circle and I'm pleased to see another vegan out there - sometimes feel that my husband and I are the only ones in the state.

This post compelled me to write. The topic of going "green" is very popular: recycling, wind/sun energy, water conservation, etc. - but probably the single most important thing we can do to save the planet is to curb population growth - but you can't have that discussion publicly.

My husband and I are childless - years ago I would've loved to have had a child, but it didn't happen and I have to say that I'm very okay with that. Imagining what that child would inherit...

Anyway, thanks for the honest and thought-provoking post.

veganelder said...

Well hello Annie and welcome and thank you for commenting. Nope, you're not the only vegan but I know the feeling.

I haven't looked over your writing yet but am looking forward to it. Yup, human population is probably the biggest single threat to the planet. My thanks to you and your husband and I look forward to becoming better acquainted.

Lee Hall said...

What the child will inherit is a really big concern now. Some 9 billion people are expected to reside on Earth around 2050. When I was born, there were 3 billion. The number of us is trebling so quickly?It is no co-incidence that we are right now living in the most frenzied of extinction crises. We're supposed to be rational beings!

veganelder said...

Thank you for commenting Lee. I've heard the "rational beings" notion too...it is important to realize, I think, that all this anointing of humans as being "rational beings" and an "intelligent" species is done by those self-same humans. Perhaps what we're most proficient at is patting ourselves on the back and deluding ourselves.