“Years ago, famed anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student fully expected Mead to speak about fish-hooks, clay pots, grinding stones. But that was not the answer. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thigh bone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead went on to explain that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, crawl to the river for a drink, or hunt for food. You are a gourmet for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. So, a broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said. We are at our best when we serve others.” (credit: Ira Byock). How do I take this statement? Being human in civilization means caring for others.
Not long after finding Mead’s statement, I learned from Jim Denison (“Denison Forum for Truth and Culture”) that the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, has issued an urgent public health issue asking Congress to include social media among other threats to public health, particularly as it relates to children. Shortly thereafter 42 state attorneys general echoed Murthy’s call. The impact of 42 states supporting Murthy’s call, may well be enough support to garner bipartisan support to become law. While similar U.S. Surgeon General warnings are typically reserved for dangers like alcohol, cigarettes, and other substances, the office has been expanding its description of what constitutes “an urgent public health issue” in recent years. Murthy’s office recently added another significant topic to its list of growing public health crises: parenting. As Murthy described, “The work of parenting is essential not only for the health of children but also for the health of society.” He went on to write, “Additionally, we know that the well-being of parents and caregivers is directly linked to the well-being of their children. The stresses parents and caregivers have today are being passed to children in direct and indirect ways, impacting families and communities across America.” We know from growing crime and familial statistics, that the family unit is in trouble. These are the stresses Murthy says are on the rise: (1) onethird of parents with children under 1 put their stress level at 8 out of 10; (2) two-thirds of parents experience loneliness; (3) two-fifths of parents claim to be “so stressed they feel numb”; and (4) two-thirds of parents cite money as a primary source of stress at a time when the average household spends 18.6 percent of its weekly income on childcare.
While all of these factors make parenting difficult, these issues have always been the case to some extent. What concerns do we have about the world in which our children will grow up in do we have? Should we forsake having kids altogether? What kind of civilized society do we really live in? The Surgeon General’s warning and the practical impact that these issues are having on the future of our culture should serve as an important warning to each of us today.
