Picture it and Write: Purpose
by joetwo
Hi there! This is my offering for this week’s Picture it and Write for Ermilia’s blog here. Once again, the picture is not mine, I only use it for inspiration. Anyway Enjoy.
Purpose,
What is a purpose? Does it define you? Does it drive your existence? Perhaps for some it does. Perhaps for some it lurks at the bottom of the mind, quietly influencing how things work.
Or maybe it is a hindrance, mental chains holding you fast in a single direction, the way you would never wish to go.
They say that the purpose of apples is to be eaten. That this is the way the seeds are spread far and wide and how the mother tree, to which the apple ultimately defers, propagates itself.
But you can also say that the ultimate purpose of a woman is to reproduce. That does not mean that squeezing a rugby ball sized mini-me out of the most intimate part of your anatomy is in the least bit pleasant. Some religions refer to it as a curse, and indeed it can seem that way for some, cursed by the drives that lead to such pain.
But; they also say, that it is ultimately worth it. That, in the end, fulfilling ones purpose ends with a feeling of joy and contentment.
But pain lingers. How worth it can it all be. That there’ll be scars, emotional, and physical. If there is a purpose, what use is it if the purpose, by design gives such pain.
I think of the apple being eaten so that seeds may have a chance and I wonder if that apple, ever thinks about what has happened to it. If it could have gotten away without being eaten.
If, for want of a better word, there was a better way.
Joe2stories 
If I’m not careful, I’m going to get on my high horse about the “purpose” of reproduction as though a woman is broken if she is unable or chooses not to have children. I will say that your writing stirred something, which is one note of good writing. I don’t think anything has a single purpose, Even something like an apple, assuming it has purpose at all, nurtures other creatures, nurtures the earth, and spreads it’s seeds. I’ve gritted my teeth through religious services where it’s proposed that everyone should drop everything they have to go on mission trips as though it is not just as important for people to work to provide the money and supplies that are used on mission trips.
Ah, philosophy. Great discussion springboard! . . . Well, are you wanting the status quo religious response, Joe?! 🙂 I will admit to liking some of what C.S. Lewis wrote about pain being a chiseler of character (to paraphrase).
I think the nature of womanhood–the cultural denotations and connotations of said term, anyway–is very much in flux. Probably a lot more so than manhood, although I’m sure a solid case can be made for that, too. Twenty-first century women, I think, will increasingly demand to be met on level terms not rooted in biologic/physiologic functions. That is to say, a woman’s purpose is not, nor need it be, reproductive any more than a man’s purpose is to be a vehicle for insemination. Being a woman does not require being a mother; being a man does not dictate that one must be a father. I’m for the idea that each person discovers his or her purpose through living; as far as we know, the newborn does not ‘know’ his purpose. He just is. To be self-reflective is a hallmark of sentient beings and something other species such as great apes, dolphins, and elephants seem to share with we humans. So, I guess you could say that there’s purpose and knowing one’s purpose. Anyway, failing watching “The Meaning of Life” or saying the ultimate answer is it’s 42 and chuckling . . . this is all I’ve got, though I could certainly continue, and not about sex roles!