Sticky in Chennai

There is a truly fascinating article in the NYTimes today about women shopping for sperm donors that should not be missed – especially by those readers who were critical of my early post partly defending arranged marriage. 

The article reminded me of a passage from The Importance of Living.  (That oft quoted volume by Lin Yutang.)  This book was first published in 1937.

It has seemed to me that the final test of any civilization is, what type of husbands and wives and fathers and mothers does it turn out?  Besides the austere simplicity of such a question, every other achievement of civilization – art, philosophy, literature and material living – pales into insignificance. …

The suggestion of such a test as I propose has the strange effect of leveling all mankind by brushing aside all the non-essentials of civilization of culture and brining all under a simple and clear equation.  All the other achievements of civilization are then seen as merely means towards the end of turning out better husbands and wives and fathers and mothers.  Insofar as ninety percent of mankind are husbands and wives and one hundred percent have parents, and insofar as marriage and home constitute the most intimate side of a man’s life, it is clear that the civilization which produces better wives and husbands and fathers and mothers makes for a happier human life, and is therefore a higher type of civilization.  The quality of men and women we live with is much more important than the work they achieve, and every girl ought to be grateful for any civilization that can present her with a better husband.