Tonight as Graham and I sat on the couch, the commercials on what we refer to as “guy tv” muted, we talked about the rising costs of oil and how we wish our government would step up, do the right thing and put more money into researching alternative fuels, hydrogen-powered cars, and the like. Perhaps they could funnel the gas tax into these efforts, we said.
“Don’t you ever worry about stuff like that when you think about having kids?” Graham asked me. “You know, countries are fighting and gas is going to be five dollars a liter by the time the kid’s driving.”
I thought carefully about his question. Of course it’s something I think about on occasion. It used to be one of the reasons that I didn’t want to have kids back when I thought I didn’t want to have kids.
What I said to him in response was, “Well, countries will always be fighting. And I guess I’m just hopeful that we’ll find solutions to some of the other problems.”
He looked at me with pursed lips and nodded.
I was reminded of an episode of All in the Family we had watched last week. In the episode, Gloria announces to Mike, Edith and Archie that she is pregnant. At first, Mike is elated, but when Gloria tells him that she was worried he wouldn’t want the baby because of the sad state of the world, he changes his tune, instead accusing Gloria of tricking him into the pregnancy by forgetting her birth control pills. She talks with Edith about whether or not she will even have the baby. Mike returns to Gloria and apologizes by presenting her with this quote by Alistair Cooke scribbled on a scrap of paper:
In the best of times, our days are numbered anyway. So it would be a crime against nature for any generation to take the world crisis so solemnly, that it put off enjoying those things for which we were designed in the first place: the opportunity to do good work, to enjoy friends, to fall in love, to hit a ball, and to bounce a baby.
I think that sums it up beautifully.
