Greenbelt cooperator., 1940-01-18
I HOPE I WORRY


going to have baby, their joy dis stinctly
moderate. When my intimate friends heard the news,
they greeted it with well-tempered enthusiasm. I
delighted, but, told, should be worried.
How did dare to bring dnild into a world where
steel could go down to 81? Didn't know that mod
parents should have harvested a savings account
Of ten thousand dollars and be of at least
three thousand dollars q year before they g.
chieved parenthood?
When had miscarriage, they more out
spoken. It was just we'll, they told oonsol-
ingly. Children were a source of constant anxiety
from the moment of their birth. Look at the Viii t.
neys' son, mentally deficient and morally degener-
ate. Look at the McCabes daughter, who spoiled her
social career by marrying the garage mechanic.
No say haven't been warned, but I still
hope to have, not child, but two more. and I
hope I shall worry.
About what? Certainly shan't worry about those
-four years in college that my friends slider
necessary. I have too many chi 1dren sent to
college at tremendous sacrifice the part of
their parent schi ldren VINO had aptitude de-
sire for an education beyond hi TOOL. On the
other hand, have seen five children in family,
my husband's, earn their own college degrees, and
se1f-education in the bargain. IF my children want
an educat on, they'll get it. I DON'T worry about
that.
hope I worry about their eagerness and curiosi-
ty, their hunger to 1earn-not necessarily about
the geological struct ture Of the Grand Canyon
first manuscripts in Ang1o-Saxon but about anything
and everything that is not superficial and obvious.
shan't worry about problems of sexual and
cia1 adjustment, but hope worry about my chill
dren's respect for other people and their refusal
to exploit others for their p1easur or profit.
hope worry about their being social and gregar-
tous animals, and about all, about being tolerant
and quick to understand others. I hope get few
gray hairs when my talks about Jews Roman
Catholics if they from Mars, strange and
mple asant and rimposdble". I hope stay awake at
night when my daughter says of classmate, "Shes 8
all right, but her father's meterman~. And when
they begin to measure success and failure by the
possession of things (Mother, they have three Pack
ardsl), I hope lose my appetiteI
hope worry about my childrenis false stand
ards, their jingoism, their militarism, and their
irreverence. It WON'T bother bit If they join
church other than ours, or refuse to go to Sunday
atheism agnosticia. But I hope I worry about
that blindness and deafness Of the heart which holds
reverence for nothing and can be left urmoved by
MYSTICAL experiences.
I hope I worry about passion for money, that
false standard based personal explot tation Of
others. When my tells with bated breath that
the father of his new acquaintance makes hundred
thousand year, I hope my heart Will sink. If the
question to how that money is earned Doesn't
trouble or even interest him, hope shall not be
too feeble infirm to smack him properly. He'll
want money, I imagine, because he is American.
But I'LL worry about wfn he wants it for. He'll
want power by the same token but I'LL have anxious
hours about the way he uses it.
Perhaps,-no, probably-a strange sea-change
Will over when the children for which 7 hope
are actually mine. may become so passtonate1y in
volved with them, apart ard di stinct from the
rest of the world, that it will matter terribly whe
ther not they belong to the Junior League and the
Harvard Club. Ny hope of salvation lies in the fact
that am my mother's daughter. She worried about
her children and taught how it should be doneI
She cared about personal integrity about om
desire for honesty and peace and social Jus tice.
She worries to this day the Ia ck Of ju gment
an6 balance and wisdom show in managing lives.
But honestly believe that she worrie mot much
because here, and therefore should be happy
and healthy and President of the Moments Club, but
because people; because the decisions ard
conc1S ions at which arrive, the standards and
principles embrace, influence on the CON-
mmity, matter how obscure lives may be-.
I hope I worry about my children part of a new
millions of others, in issues of and peace, and
in the government of this country. I hope that
and my husband worry consistently and generously
and literally that do something about it; that
midnight watches and s1eepless dams startle u.
out of couplacent suburban parenthood; that we,
all generation, shall furtous1y about
the world shall not live to see, that nevel