In my mind everyone should take care of their own shit as soon as they are able developmentally, and as long as they can physically and mentally as they age. Sometimes we have to take care of someone else’s shit; like a small child or someone who is aging or sick. But basically everyone needs to pick up after themselves.
Beginning at a young age children should be taught the chores needed to keep the household running smoothly. Clean up your own room, help with shopping, take your turn cooking, washing, and helping with yard work. Everyone has to help around the house.
Each family member has duties. It is each parent’s primary duty to take care of the child by providing food, shelter, clothing and moral support. Humans have such a long drawn out maturing process. Even the government recognizes that parents should be able to provide medical coverage for a child who is in their twenties and still finishing college.
Aside from chores and education, humans need enrichment. Enrichment can take many forms, but I equate it with music, art, dance, theater, sports, museums, libraries, and nature based field trips to state parks and national wilderness areas. Communing with nature is an important awareness. Even big city parks can be considered a nature trip to someone from the inner city.
Appreciation of animals and all that they provide for us is also a responsible human prerequisite. Animals exist for our pleasure – our human pleasure. We have fashioned animals to our own liking domesticating everything to our own needs and taste. We teach a bird to talk and a dog to do tricks for our own amusement.
We breed certain animals for the taste of their meat or the use of their flesh and bones, or to use at our discretion for work or entertainment. Look at what we have done to the dog who has gone from a wild wolf to a hairless rat and in the other direction to a monstrous beast weighing as much a a large man. All for our personal enjoyment.
The use of nature’s gifts requires another commitment from us. We use what we can and what we must, but we also need to be stewards of the earth and seek to protect the environment for future generations. This too is part of our responsibility as humans to each other.
It all gets down to management. As children we learn to manage our anger, manage our hunger, manage our desires. We cannot forget these lessons as we age. We still need to continue managing.
At some point, if we have done our jobs right, our children will grow up to learn the lessons we have taught them. Then they will get a job, move away, make mistakes of their own, get through it, and get a life of their own. Hopefully they will have some good stories to tell and end up in a loving monogamous relationship. True love is the only path to getting out alive… for as long as we have, anyway.
(First published May 29, 2013)
