"Do You Want Kids?"
It's a new year! The holidays are behind us! However, the existential threats to human existence persist, leaving us millennials wondering if the roadmaps our parents laid out for our lives in the 80s and 90s are still paths worth pursuing, or even possible to pursue. Across nations, states and cultures - the mega question (primarily posed to women) is - "Do you want kids?". WANT? Wanting is a tricky word. Wanting something does not mean it will happen. The Four Noble Truths that are central to Buddhist philosophy are: (1) Life is suffering, (2) attachment to desire causes suffering, (3) suffering ends with the attachment to desire, and (4) the Eightfold Path is the path to liberation from suffering. We do have free will over the choices we make moment to moment, and those choices amount to the life we have. If you have a sense of your life purpose and that includes parenthood, that's a beautiful and meaningful thing to pursue and hope for. I understand why having