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Page 2 of 5 The shift in prevailing attitude from an emphasis on "God and country" to one of "find yourself" and "if it feels good, do it", which gained momentum in the early 1960's, seems to have provided us with a whole generation of adults with a desire for immediate gratification. The problem became compounded in the late 1960's and early 1970's when these members of the "ME" generation began pairing off and producing families. A person who cannot or simply chooses not to put others before self will not, in my opinion, make a very good parent. Unfortunately, an individual's parenting ability and proclivity for reproduction do not seem to be directly related. In fact, although I have no empirical data to support this opinion, I suspect that there is an inverse correlation between one's ability to provide a stable, nurturing environment in which to raise a child and the number of offspring produced. One inevitable consequence of having too many egocentric adults is our country's astronomical divorce rate. All too often, people enter into marriage with unrealistic expectations of what they can get out of it, rather than what they can bring to it. When the relationship does not turn out to be as gratifying as they had anticipated, more and more people are finding that a divorce is the most convenient way out. With current statistics indicating that over fifty percent of all marriages in the United States will end in divorce, a staggering number of children are becoming enthralled in the quagmire of associated problems. No statistics are available on the divorce rate among traditional martial artists, but I imagine that if such figures were available, they would indicate a much higher rate of stability than the national average. One could expect that whereas these individuals have been trained to be more sharply perceptive of the motivations, attitudes, and intentions of others, traditional martial artists would likely be more successful in selecting the most suitable lifetime mate. Observations of the children coming out of "broken" homes over nearly twenty years suggest that in the vast majority of instances, one of two scenarios prevail. In the first, and probably most common scenario, the single parent who retains custody of the children is hard pressed to meet the physical and emotional needs of the children. As basic physical needs (food and shelter) make up the top priority, the single parent must spend extra time working to earn more money to meet those needs. This leaves the parent with grossly inadequate time and resources for dealing with the emotional development of the children as well as the ethical guidance.
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