My friend JJ brought up an interesting phenomenon regarding the 'One child' policy in China (ie couples are forced to limit their offspring to one child)
Nobody has any siblings, no brothers or sisters. No aunts or uncles. No cousins. No nieces or nephews. You just have your parents. No extended family. When she visited China, she heard that this policy had profound effects on individual's sense of responsibility to their family which has long been a strength of Chinese culture. You have your parents and that's it. When they're gone, you are on your own. And you are not responsible for anybody else. No 'brother's keeper' because there is no brother.
I think of my own family. My parents each had a sister. I have a sister and a brother. And I have 4 children (we won't go into how *that* happened). I value my siblings especially now in middle age. We have depended on each other during our parents' illness and passing. And into the future. Sometime in the next year, we intend to take a trip together to Hawaii.
If I did not have those siblings and my parent died, who else might I have?
I think of my friend Matt who had *3* Uncle Bobs.
I know that my kids (all 20 somethings) have strong relationships with each other. Growing up, they hung together in many ways. And they know they can all look to each other now.
This could rend a huge tear in the fabric of many societies. What if we only worked for ourselves but not for our brothers, sisters and cousins? The culture may even lose the sense of extended family and connections that we all share. No sisterhood if no sisters.
The upper picture use from a site based right here in Washington of a Yang Family who are masters in Tai Chi. Used without permission. Below is a picture I featured several weeks ago of members of my extended family at my mother's memorial. Picture contains brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins. But look, we've lost the older generation. Now, we are the elders.
No comments:
Post a Comment