"I see it almost like an extension of the beauty studio, where being proactive about your reproduction and longevity just seems like an act of self-care.”
To be honest, this sounds horrible to me. It seems to me, as a society, if there is a choice between a natural process and an artificial (possibly industrialized, normed) process, we go for the latter. I can't understand why we do not have any respect at all for natural processes - the process of creating new humans; the process of caring them when they are babies and toddlers - the process of building long-lasting communities - the process of learning to accept our bodies - this is not nothing. These are fundamental, basic processes that shape what it means to be human and that shape each and every one of us.
Sure, these processes are natural, meaning there can be hickups and drawbacks and sometimes failure - but we as a society seem to overlook that there are hickups and drawbacks and failure with artificial processes, too.
In another life, I was raising a baby and toddler while working in a fulltime job - time is such a valuable resource when parenting small children and I just didn't have it and so everybody got hurt. And now I can't unsee the damage done by artificial processes; why can't everybody see them?
I watched the Pitt debate (was hoping to attend in person but the protests made it hard to take the bus in). You were by far the best part of it, although I was pleasantly surprised by how serious both debaters were!
Thanks for the link. I'm only just catching up with my reading and noticed, with great surprise, my name here! I love how you apply the idea of beholding to beholding the person you are debating.
Thanks for highlighting these Leah! As Melanie Bettinelli highlighted Makoto Fujimura, if anyone is interested I would heartily recommend his new (ish) book “Art + Faith: A Theology of Making”. I read it last year and it resonated.
As they consider timing childbirth, I suspect that many women don't think much about arithmetic, specifically the ages of their prospective children's grandparents. Children and energetic grandparents can develop close bonds, and parents often appreciate help from the older generation. Similarly, parents tend to find friendship among the parents of their children's schoolmates and teammates. If the playmates' moms and dads are old enough to BE one's children, the generation gap may well lead to polite distance rather than easy camaraderie.
"fyi you can’t get out of having duties to other people’s children by not having children, you have to have never been a child yourself"
Great tweet. I've always believed this and acted accordingly. It'd be really nice if some of the Christians who've told me that I'm worse than useless because I don't have children would recognize it. For these people, it doesn't matter if you deliberately and lovingly invest in the lives of children -- you're still worse than useless if you don't have your own.
Your Substack posts on Richard Reeves was fantastic! I wish we could have a national conversation on boys that was more than just “hold them back” - as I mentioned in the article, boys seem just as *ready* to learn as girls, but their preferences about how to do so seem (on average) different. I’ve heard from a lot of homeschool moms that their boys like to learn while moving, prefer listening to reading, and expressing what they’ve learned orally rather than through writing. This is not-of course-to say “one size fits all.” Lots of little girls also like to move around. But I would love to see more emphasis on adapting classrooms to all these learning styles, and I fear standardized testing is part of the barrier....
I love the metaphor of kintsugi - and I love your brief reflection on beholding those who disagree and starting from a place of love and generosity. I would be very interested in reading a longer reflection on the Pitt debate set in this framing. How could the metaphor of kintsugi be applied to our national moment?
I so deeply hope that we will come through this current fracturing stronger than ever, full of more love and respect for each other and our pluralistic society. But right now there is so much hatred being enshrined into law - so much brokenness. And fundamental disagreement about what is broken. What shape do the the pieces form? What does beautiful repair consist of?
“the fix is paring off parts of the natural process”
Are you passing negative judgment on women who experience fertility issues (of any age) and wish to go about conceiving beyond some simple fertility timing method? I have many friends who’ve had issues and work with their doctor to help conceive because “the natural process” was not working, and now have children because of breakthroughs in medical science
"I see it almost like an extension of the beauty studio, where being proactive about your reproduction and longevity just seems like an act of self-care.”
To be honest, this sounds horrible to me. It seems to me, as a society, if there is a choice between a natural process and an artificial (possibly industrialized, normed) process, we go for the latter. I can't understand why we do not have any respect at all for natural processes - the process of creating new humans; the process of caring them when they are babies and toddlers - the process of building long-lasting communities - the process of learning to accept our bodies - this is not nothing. These are fundamental, basic processes that shape what it means to be human and that shape each and every one of us.
Sure, these processes are natural, meaning there can be hickups and drawbacks and sometimes failure - but we as a society seem to overlook that there are hickups and drawbacks and failure with artificial processes, too.
In another life, I was raising a baby and toddler while working in a fulltime job - time is such a valuable resource when parenting small children and I just didn't have it and so everybody got hurt. And now I can't unsee the damage done by artificial processes; why can't everybody see them?
I watched the Pitt debate (was hoping to attend in person but the protests made it hard to take the bus in). You were by far the best part of it, although I was pleasantly surprised by how serious both debaters were!
Thanks for the link. I'm only just catching up with my reading and noticed, with great surprise, my name here! I love how you apply the idea of beholding to beholding the person you are debating.
Thanks for highlighting these Leah! As Melanie Bettinelli highlighted Makoto Fujimura, if anyone is interested I would heartily recommend his new (ish) book “Art + Faith: A Theology of Making”. I read it last year and it resonated.
As they consider timing childbirth, I suspect that many women don't think much about arithmetic, specifically the ages of their prospective children's grandparents. Children and energetic grandparents can develop close bonds, and parents often appreciate help from the older generation. Similarly, parents tend to find friendship among the parents of their children's schoolmates and teammates. If the playmates' moms and dads are old enough to BE one's children, the generation gap may well lead to polite distance rather than easy camaraderie.
"fyi you can’t get out of having duties to other people’s children by not having children, you have to have never been a child yourself"
Great tweet. I've always believed this and acted accordingly. It'd be really nice if some of the Christians who've told me that I'm worse than useless because I don't have children would recognize it. For these people, it doesn't matter if you deliberately and lovingly invest in the lives of children -- you're still worse than useless if you don't have your own.
Your Substack posts on Richard Reeves was fantastic! I wish we could have a national conversation on boys that was more than just “hold them back” - as I mentioned in the article, boys seem just as *ready* to learn as girls, but their preferences about how to do so seem (on average) different. I’ve heard from a lot of homeschool moms that their boys like to learn while moving, prefer listening to reading, and expressing what they’ve learned orally rather than through writing. This is not-of course-to say “one size fits all.” Lots of little girls also like to move around. But I would love to see more emphasis on adapting classrooms to all these learning styles, and I fear standardized testing is part of the barrier....
So beautiful! Thanks for sharing this.
I love the metaphor of kintsugi - and I love your brief reflection on beholding those who disagree and starting from a place of love and generosity. I would be very interested in reading a longer reflection on the Pitt debate set in this framing. How could the metaphor of kintsugi be applied to our national moment?
I so deeply hope that we will come through this current fracturing stronger than ever, full of more love and respect for each other and our pluralistic society. But right now there is so much hatred being enshrined into law - so much brokenness. And fundamental disagreement about what is broken. What shape do the the pieces form? What does beautiful repair consist of?
“the fix is paring off parts of the natural process”
Are you passing negative judgment on women who experience fertility issues (of any age) and wish to go about conceiving beyond some simple fertility timing method? I have many friends who’ve had issues and work with their doctor to help conceive because “the natural process” was not working, and now have children because of breakthroughs in medical science