Briefly

It’s hard to believe that any book could have ever cost just 25 cents, much less one that could have survived since I was a tiny boy. I’m sometimes surprised by which things from my childhood have managed to stay with me for all these years, but I’m not surprised to still have “Good Night, Little Bear.” When I was the tiniest of little boys, this was my favorite book. I’m told that I used to carry it around with me. Everybody around me got tired of reading this story, but I asked for it over and over again. I was delighted by the question of whether the little bear was fooling Papa Bear. The story tickled my little brain with the concept of how people could fool one another but without the malice involved in lying. I think everybody can connect a little bit more with the child he or she once was by being able to touch and re-experience such things from their past. Such artifacts tell us a lot about where we came from and how we became what we are. This is something from childhood which makes me happy.

A friend of mine got engaged today and she posted a dozen pictures from the proposal. (No, it’s not the one pictured here.) She and her fiancé went to a very remote and picturesque location — which would normally be quiet and deserted — but there was still someone to take a bunch of pictures of this very intimate moment. I seem to be the one who’s out of step with society on this point, but I am very uncomfortable with the degree to which we are turning our private lives into something that looks like “reality TV.” If this is what you want for your life, that’s your business. I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong. But I don’t want to live out my intimate moments for the world to share. I don’t want to be stage-managing the production of my life while I play a part for the world to watch later. If that’s the life you want, that’s your business, but when I am fortunate enough to ask a woman to marry me, it will be a moment of personal connection between that woman and me. The world will not be watching, then or later.

Hatred for the traditional family has been the subtext of progressive left ideology for decades. Although there has been a serious overreaction from social conservatives — many of whom believe a family can only look like what they have — there’s been serious disdain from social left theorists and from left-wing political regimes. Remember that The Communist Manifesto called for the “abolition of the family.” Now there’s a wing of feminism which is openly advocating the abolition of blood-related families. Feminist theorist Sophie Lewis is getting respectful hearings in the left-wing media for her new book called “Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family.” She’s not alone. Less than two years ago, a social psychology professor from City University of New York made waves when she said that white people who are creating white children are somehow supporting “white supremacy.” She wrote, “Part of what I’ve learned is that the white-nuclear family is one of the most powerful forces supporting white supremacy.” Ideas matter. These people are a tiny minority today, but much of the insane things you see being forced on society today started as tiny pockets of lunacy in academia. We can’t let these crazies win. We need healthy families more than ever.