So what have i been up to? Well, I've been keeping busy. I have a few ideas for a blog entry that have been running around in my head and an adorable picture of Noah when he moved Izy's toys and climbed in next to her to read her Brown Bear Brown Bear. But all of that must wait. My class on classical and medival politics ends in 2 Weeks! So as a sorry replacement for all of that and so you will have some inkling of where my thoughts have been. Here is my response to Plato's Republic.
The Nature of Family
While time and place have both interfered with a discussion with Socrates, the minds eye can see another time and place after this life when such a thing might be possible.
Socrates sits quietly on a jutting outcrop, in a field of meadow flowers. He looks at nothing but is looking with such intensity that the eyes are drawn to the apparent nothingness in front of him. As I come closer I realize that hanging in the air is a small insect of some sort and drawn in I watch it for a moment or two before softly hemming. Socrates says “yes?” quietly and without interrupting his gaze.
“Well, I , I was wondering . . . I mean I’ve read your books, well one of them. Or actually I guess I’ve read a book about you by Plato . . .but it amounts to a lot of the same thing right? Anyway, I thought that if you weren’t busy . . .”
As I wait for an answer I look again to the insect he is watching, only now I see that it is caught in a web. Was it caught this whole time? I wonder. Did it become stuck only recently? I never even saw the web. Did he? Surely he saw it and that was what made him look so intently. I switched my gaze back to him only to meet the most disconcerting gaze I had ever been the subject of.
I had been in the presence of great men before. In my youth I had gone to a devotional given by Gordon B. Hinkley and felt his presence when he entered the room. This was strong like that had been, but different. I knew that here was a man with an amazing capacity for concentration and understanding. Here was a man that wanted more from me and from everyone that he met then I was sure I wanted to give. I found myself drawn to him, but nervous. I wasn’t sure I would measure up. I wondered what he would do if he really could see my thoughts as it seemed he was trying to do. I wondered if perhaps I had been wrong in coming here. Wrong to want to share my insights and understanding of one small part of what he had spent his lifetime and now more studying probing and taking apart section by minute section.
“I’m not busy.”- I jumped. I had been lost in a reverie of my own and wasn’t ready for anyone to speak. He chuckled a low chuckle deep in his throat and smiled at me.
“What was it you wanted to discuss?” he asked getting right to the point.
I was glad he had used the word discuss. It took the pressure off to not have to condense my thoughts into one small question.
“ Well, I’ve been thinking about the city you described in Plato’s book The Republic.”
“And. . .”
“ I was wondering if you were really serious about the community of women and all that.”
“Oh. That. I knew that I would tread on some nerves there and I can see that I did. You’ll remember that I tried to avoid even bringing it up because I knew what the reaction of most would be. Let me guess, you’re not a fan of the idea?”
“No, but there is more to it then that, there are a lot of things in the Republic that I don’t agree with.”
“Oh?” His eyebrow raised.
“It’s not everything, but . . . I guess I should stick to my subject though. You see I thought that perhaps you needed to see a bit better from someone who has had a bit more experience with how women and children’s minds work”
“I take it that would be you”
“Well, yes. Having been a child and had several of my own, being a women (a married one at that), and having thought a great deal about the subject I was hoping that we could discuss the question and just see if we can come to a better understanding of each other’s view points.”
“Certainly, I always love to discuss. Since you seem to have the upper hand on me, you know some of what my thoughts are but I don’t know yours, although I probably have an idea. Why don’t you go first.”
“Sure, but where to begin” He calmly looked up at me with an intensity that belialed his calm. I found a relatively comfortable mound and settled myself into it. I was in no hurry and took the short time that it took me to get comfortable in order to gather my thoughts.
“You treated whether there is a difference inborn between women and men. You said that they are not different except that men are better at most everything that they put their hand to being the stronger sex. I do not disagree that overall with some overlap of course men are stronger physically then women, but I do not agree that this is the only difference. Women by nature and design have the opportunity to carry and support new beings as they develop in this world. This is echoed in the priceless food that comes from them to physically nurture the child. This is a clear sign that what she is intended for is to be the caregiver for the rising population. She it is who knows how to sooth hurts, how to train obedience, and instruct in right habits. She it is that first teaches how to walk and how to talk. Again it is plain that in nature the eagles don’t fly to whatever eagle nest is empty and has little ones waiting for food, but to their own little ones. In every case nature shows us that it is right and natural for the parents to be tightly bound to their own offspring. This is nature’s way of assuring that each and every little one gets the best of care. That none of the children are left in the shadows unattended, but that each mother is there to feed, care for, teach and help their individual child to become the best that they can be.”
“So your primarily argument is with the idea of taking the children away from their mothers and raising them so that the mothers will treat all of the children with the love that they have for their own son or daughter, not knowing which one it might be?”
“The problem is that like other things there is a scarcity of resources. Any one mother or father can only give so much of their time and talents and when the responsibility and honor of being a parent are taken from them they realize that they cannot possibly give to all of the children what they would have given to their own. Therefore they may either give something much smaller- and not even a distant cousin so to speak to the absolute devotion given to their own- to all the children, or they may save themselves the trouble seeing that someone else will now take all the burden from their hands and care very little for any of them. Either of these results is a loosing situation. You have effectively destroyed the bonds that were meant to be there.
“These bonds do not simply magically appear, but are brought into being by the intense amount of time and effort spent in serving and the gratitude and love returned for that service on the other. Since we have just seen that the level of service to any one child will not occur then we can conclude that the level of the bonds will also decrease.”
“In decreasing their bonds for each other might we not expect their bonds to the city to increase? After all, we know people to want to belong to something. And being raised and cared for by the city, might they not turn this natural love to the city as a whole?”
“Unfortunately, while this may occur with some, especially those that were lucky enough to be outstanding in some area, or extremely good looking, so that they got special attention, we have seen in many cases children who are not held and taken care of as a mother takes care of her child in the first few years can become hardened and refuse to bond to anyone or anything. This is a symptom of modern day orphanages. There is a reason that we are born into families and these roles are vital to the health of the children. The names of mother, father, sister and brother are indeed powerful names. It would be wonderful if we could all treat each other as such. In order for children to truly understand the deep feeling and meaning that these names possess they must first experience them in their own lives. Broken families, missing fathers, careless mothers, foster children, orphanages, all of these we have seen the results of in my lifetime. The government tried to fill the gaps through public education for all, before school, after school care, foster parents etc. The results were catastrophic. They showed that without a healthy childhood with parents that loved them and a family to support and care for them, without a mother that loved them pimples and all and a father that took time to be with them their chances for success were a small sliver of what they could have been.
“And so I guess what I would like to do is to argue the importance of the family. It is such a simple thing, so seemingly easy, but really the basic foundation of learning. After all without a secure foundation and a trust that comes from being cared for you cannot truly concentrate wholly on learning, and see clearly without regret, frustration, or distrust the world as it is.”
But there is where the discussion stops. Would he have an argument to rebut? Would he laugh and say “Of course! I am glad that it has made you think so much. That was my only goal all along and so I deliberately picked such a subject.” Or would he, seeing the long years of history stretched out behind admit sadly that he was wrong? Or would he scoff at my arguments and say, “You wonderful woman you, how can you not see?” I wonder. Each time that it plays in my mind he answers in a different way. He reacts with a different answer. And so it must stay. For now.
