"It is a vocation, parenting, that is not just all about yourself, because it is all about that future you will never see. It is all about that happiness you will never enjoy. It is all about that person who will grow to a maturity, offering to the world a gift, one element of which may reflect a little contribution from yourself. But long before that gift is finally delivered, you will likely have shuffled off this mortal coil, and not be there to enjoy it. represents the possibility, which in the end is at the heart of the perpetuation of all our human community: the possibility that we will not live for ourselves alone, but will feel a deep and true connection, with a future we will never see, with a progeny we will never meet, but who, in our hearts' imaginations, we contemplate, with a sense of responsibility and obligation. Change the understanding of marriage, and you have changed the understanding of our character in such a way as to break our bond with that future, and to undermine that sense of responsibility."
React to this quote
More by Alan Keyes
See allResonant Thoughts
"We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change."
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"When I came back to Ottawa I found myself faced with a very difficult parliamentary situation... I think it…"
— Lester B. Pearson"I'm of the opinion that science fiction writers suck at predicting the future. We mostly go around describi…"
— Cory Doctorow"There are a few of us who could scarcely do more than we are doing of our own regular order of work, but th…"
— Charles Spurgeon"At a given time some concrete forms are simply there in vision, not less than colors and brightnesses."
— Wolfgang Köhler"he broad movement oriented toward advocacy for sexual minorities has become more hysterical and more insist…"
— Kevin D. Williamson"The discounting presumably is to be done for each period of time at that rate of interest which represents …"
— Kenneth Boulding