When I was born, my parents owed me a living. It was, after all, *their* decision to bring another human life into existence; one that would require feeding, nurturing, continual supplies of oxygen, etc.
Fortunately for us all, the oxygen supply issue is (at present) a non-issue. Can't seem to go anywhere without catching a lungful of the stuff. That left them free to concentrate on the food and the nurturing and so on.
They provided food in ample sufficiency (albeit occasionally a bit overcooked) until my 18th year, and in the meantime they provided (by means of Dad's income tax payments and Mum's crossword addiction and various books and a TV set) something really valuable: An education. (Remember the parable about teaching a guy to fish?)
I have to honest and say that on the nurturing front, they seem to have got a bit behind on payments after the first few years. There are complex reasons for that, which I won't go into here.
I figure they had actually discharged their material debt to me by the time I was 16, and by the time I went to Uni, they were well in credit with me... But I was an ungrateful sod, oblivious to these matters of economics, and demanded more. And they *kept on making the payments*.
And the thing about Uni is, you don't just get more education, and some cut-price accomodation (paid for by Mum & Dad's direct contributions and taxes), you also get a whole new bunch of friends, who are around you ever day. That slight deficit on the nurture side? Paid by proxy.
No one owes me a living any more. The fact that I was provided with one, but seem to have used up *two*, is what places me in debt - and is nobody's fault but my own.
But there are folks in the world who *are* still owed a living. People who have never received what their parents - sometimes only one of their parents... or in very rare cases, someone other than parents - became obligated to provide when they did whatever they did that led to the creation of a new life. The difficulty in many of those cases is deciding *who* owes them a living, and/or figuring out what to do about the fact that said person or entity has no means to pay...
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 03:22 pm (UTC)When I was born, my parents owed me a living. It was, after all, *their* decision to bring another human life into existence; one that would require feeding, nurturing, continual supplies of oxygen, etc.
Fortunately for us all, the oxygen supply issue is (at present) a non-issue. Can't seem to go anywhere without catching a lungful of the stuff. That left them free to concentrate on the food and the nurturing and so on.
They provided food in ample sufficiency (albeit occasionally a bit overcooked) until my 18th year, and in the meantime they provided (by means of Dad's income tax payments and Mum's crossword addiction and various books and a TV set) something really valuable: An education. (Remember the parable about teaching a guy to fish?)
I have to honest and say that on the nurturing front, they seem to have got a bit behind on payments after the first few years. There are complex reasons for that, which I won't go into here.
I figure they had actually discharged their material debt to me by the time I was 16, and by the time I went to Uni, they were well in credit with me... But I was an ungrateful sod, oblivious to these matters of economics, and demanded more. And they *kept on making the payments*.
And the thing about Uni is, you don't just get more education, and some cut-price accomodation (paid for by Mum & Dad's direct contributions and taxes), you also get a whole new bunch of friends, who are around you ever day. That slight deficit on the nurture side? Paid by proxy.
No one owes me a living any more. The fact that I was provided with one, but seem to have used up *two*, is what places me in debt - and is nobody's fault but my own.
But there are folks in the world who *are* still owed a living. People who have never received what their parents - sometimes only one of their parents... or in very rare cases, someone other than parents - became obligated to provide when they did whatever they did that led to the creation of a new life. The difficulty in many of those cases is deciding *who* owes them a living, and/or figuring out what to do about the fact that said person or entity has no means to pay...