Is Family Life That Important?

I do not look at families as the best places to spend one's time. More often than not, they are like cages where the young stay and spend their life. The real life of a young adult is outside, in the open.

Families are meant for children – to grow up and learn. An adult man or woman needs to stay free, and live of one's own, and learn to take care of oneself.

It may be true for some that people with a happy family are happy and cheerful. The family provides a secure and nurturing environment. What does it mean to live alone? Does it not breed loneliness and grief? A young adult can live in a family and still be more happy and cheerful than someone who lives of his own. The image of a happy family speaks for itself.

Indeed, many eventually would find themselves forming relations, friendships, and ultimately a family of one's own. If that is what human nature leads everyone to, what could be wrong with having or living in a family?

A family life confines us to a close group of people that we relate to more than others. Our personal world seems to shrink to the confines of the home, and does not seem to extend beyond that.

A free man is not confined this way to his home or family. The world becomes his world, and he lives in it like a free man.

A life based on reason and rationality, a thinking man's life, a real, mature life, demands independence. One could still have a family, and balance the two sides. That is up to us.

The importance attached to the family is overrated. Is it the only means of being happy and cheerful? Is the picture of a happy family the only picture worth following? A family is supposed to be built on sacrifices. Can such people really be happy?

If we follow the tradition blindly – do as others do, we may see some value in living a family life. If we think through it, stay true to ourselves, we may be able to alter and modify it to live a life built on freedom and understanding.

06/02/2006