Home Economics solutions for sustaining family life – part 4

by Dr. A. Cecil Cyrus 28.JUN.11

Education contributes vastly to the enhancement, even tenor and preservation of family life, because it is the prevention and cure of poverty, that disease that afflicts the majority of the peoples of the world. Education is power. When I speak of the power of education, I do not mean the capacity, the ability or a weapon to inflict hurt or damage or misery on anyone, or to vaunt one’s knowledge to impress others.{{more}} By power I refer to that ethereal, spiritual propellant that not only activates and sets in motion, but propels and maintains the momentum of the engines of ambition, achievement, personal freedom, independence, security, inner strength and self-worth; moreover, the propellant that emancipates us from the shackles of the several poverties that are responsible for the many crippling ills of the poor. When I speak of power I refer to that virtue, that inner purity and upliftment that only education can bestow.

A TRIBUTE TO MOTHERS

It is fitting that I should end this address with a tribute to mothers. Perhaps the richest reward of my practice of medicine was that I learnt reverence for motherhood or the potential of motherhood, nay, woman. To me, one of the most wonderful, engaging facets of life is the miracle of reproduction. And it is the mother who is mainly involved in this. It is she who nurtures the perfect, lovable little parasite in her gradually deforming body. And, when the allotted time is come for her to disgorge this no-longer welcome lodger into the confusion of life, it is she who is subjected to the greatest pain that the human body has to endure, the colic, the torture, the hell on earth of labour, the most enjoyable of my practice was delivering babies through the natural passage. I did so hundreds of times, but familiarity never dulled nor diminished the health wonderment that it always evoked. It still ranks as one of the great wonders of life.

And, what is the relevance of this outpouring? Simply, that motherhood or its potential should elevate women to their true position of eminence, especially in the home, for, it is they who bind the family together as one at all times. Despite their hard day’s work and interrupted sleep, it is they who get the children ready for school, prepare the breakfast and so on.

They may get various levels of assistance, but theirs are the main responsibilities.

Women use the heart more and the brain a little less in the ordaining of things, because, by nature, they are more compassionate, understanding, forgiving and loving. And so, it is they, mainly, who preserve and sustain the sanctity, integrity and true values of family life.

And so, I encourage all men to abandon their smug, irrational belief in the superiority of their sex, and elevate all women, especially mothers, to their rightful place as, at least, their equals, if not their superiors.

CONCLUSION

This has been a medley of thoughts, a potpourri in which I have tried to outline the threats to the stability and sanctity of family life, and, where feasible, the prevention and correction of these challenges.

I am, indeed grateful to the Ministry of Education and the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Home Economics Association for according me the luxury and honour of addressing such an August, humanitarian group of persons, dedicated to improving the lives of the destitute; this, the basic tenet, the sine qua non of Christianity, doing good to our fellowman. Ladies and gentlemen, many thanks for your kind, gracious audience and forbearance.