Family is Critical Infrastructure
Unpolished thoughts on family and society. Updated 2024-12-13
Family is one of the most important forces in the world. Possibly, the most important. And the responsibility for family comes to you as soon as you’re ready to accept it.
Today, my infant child is benefiting from sacrifices I made in my twenties, when I was just as lonely and single as any other 20-year-old. And I did not understand the purpose of those sacrificies fully until the present day.
My son will grow up with two loving parents in a nuclear family, so help me God. My wife and I have made up our minds; now only unspeakable calamity could bar him from that.
My wife and I are prepared to make every necessary sacrifice for his well-being; and we’re prepared to instill within him the values and lessons we learned from our families. That is the ultimate power of family. It’s a shared connection through sacrifice and a common ethos.
Ethos. It’s the one thing from tribalism we can’t lose. It’s great to accept others who are different from you; but you can’t devour those are like you in the process. You have to remember where you came from, and why.
You have to believe in an idea that your parents stood for. Something absolute. Worth dying for, even. If you can’t do that, then they’ve done you a disservice; or maybe, you’ve forgotten.
Either way, that sense of purpose that comes from a sacred, shared history has been eroding for a long time in this world.
That’s why I believe the most important thing I can do with my life is to be a good husband and a good father. Until I’m good at those two, every other good thing I can manage is a bonus. Those are the priority.