I just read The Margarets by Sherri S. Tepper, whose books I love. This one takes place during a time when the Earth has become too overpopulated to sustain life. The plot is way too complex to summarize here without sounding nonsensical but it ties into a video posted today on Hecate’s blog.
It makes perfect sense to me but people stare at me like I’m insane when I say that overpopulation is one of the reasons that I’m choosing to adopt instead of reproducing.
I’m also loving this video The Wit and Wisdom of Cancer that I found through the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.
Now, mind you I don’t believe humanity truly needs to be extinct for the world to thrive, but this is also part of the reason (another part being I’m just not patient enough to have more children) I had my tubes tied last summer. I had an ironic-chuckle moment, though, when I went to my HS reunion last month & saw how may kids most of my female class-mates (those who showed, anyway) have had. One of them has 5 little kids, from newborn to 6 years old. Others have 2 or working on their third. I’m one of TWO (at least, at this point) of us who’ve decided that 1 will be all I bear. The other class-mate decided that since she’s got one son in her life without a father figure, she’s not going to risk having another child who would also grow up without a steady second parent in their life. Different reasons, same result. We’re both refusing to add to the population overload. But at the same time, I look around and think that Emily, with her 5 kids, not only replaced herself & her husband, but 3 more adults. How about that mom in Indiana who just had her 17th and wants more. *shaking head* She’s replaced herself & her husband plus 15. Or the woman who’s children I grew up with who had 13 kids before the Dr removed her uterus (before she killed herself & another baby-in-utero by getting pregnant again when she knew she wasn’t strong enough, even after almost dying & killing that 13th child). Or all the families I grew up with who had 4, 5, 6, 7 and more children. My having only 1 just isn’t going to cut it. Your adopting without having any children of your own may be very noble & honorable, but it’s not really going to make a dent. And even though there are plenty of “christian” moms out there who will give their multitudes of children love & support, there are other moms like my SIL who think it’s more of a hassle to get fixed than to stop bearing children, and who wind up abandoning those children. You’re doing a great thing by adopting one of those abandoned, but there will always be more abandoned…..
I read your post & watch that video and agree, but feel like when you & I & other blogger chit-chat about this, we’re simply “preaching to the choir”. We’re quiet voices in a noisy, baby-filled world. I don’t hate kids (well, not as long as I can send them home with their moms & dads). It doesn’t sadden me to see a new mom with a baby in arms. It saddens me to see a mom with 2 or 3 youngsters in tow, and pregnant again and talking about how she & her hubby want to form their own foot-ball team. *sigh* Preaching to the choir, I’m afraid. Or a single-voice in a sand-storm.