Fertility: bounty of mind, body and spirit, involving creativity, production of objects, food, works of art,
etc,. an appreciation of the physical, sensual, nurturing.
Fertility
noun
[uncountable] /fɜrˈtɪləti/
1. ability of the soil to produce a lot of good crops or plants.
2. a woman's ability to have babies.
a. used about traditions and ceremonies that encourage fertility.
3. someone's ability to have good ideas or produce good work.1
Fertility of crops, the propagation of the new generation, descendants to keep your name and offer to you when you've passed. These are the traditional ideas of fertility, these were the kinds of fertility valued by our IE ancestors.
However, we now live in far easier times. We no longer count our age in the number of winters survived, and gone are the days when people would have children with the expectation that half of them would die. The family unit itself has changed too, and is no longer confined to the traditional 'man + woman + 2.4 children' formula of previous years. Thankfully, as a woman, my social worth is no longer bound up in my ability to produce a son.
On a personal level, I have felt the pain of infertility and pregnancy loss and although I'm finally a mother, I am so very glad that ADF defines fertility far more widely than it was defined historically. I've seen communities that operate by and emphasize the more traditional fertility of body, and I've seen the hurt that happens when (usually) women are 'othered' because of infertility issues in those communities, and I think it's the most unhealthy way to run a community. We all have our different skills and talents, our varied ways of contributing to our communities and all should be valued. Moreover, psychologists have found a strong correlation between curiosity of mind (which leads to curiosity), and positive mental health outcomes2, which I think only serves to further underline the wisdom of the ADF definition of fertility.
1. ability of the soil to produce a lot of good crops or plants.
2. a woman's ability to have babies.
a. used about traditions and ceremonies that encourage fertility.
3. someone's ability to have good ideas or produce good work.1
Fertility of crops, the propagation of the new generation, descendants to keep your name and offer to you when you've passed. These are the traditional ideas of fertility, these were the kinds of fertility valued by our IE ancestors.
However, we now live in far easier times. We no longer count our age in the number of winters survived, and gone are the days when people would have children with the expectation that half of them would die. The family unit itself has changed too, and is no longer confined to the traditional 'man + woman + 2.4 children' formula of previous years. Thankfully, as a woman, my social worth is no longer bound up in my ability to produce a son.
On a personal level, I have felt the pain of infertility and pregnancy loss and although I'm finally a mother, I am so very glad that ADF defines fertility far more widely than it was defined historically. I've seen communities that operate by and emphasize the more traditional fertility of body, and I've seen the hurt that happens when (usually) women are 'othered' because of infertility issues in those communities, and I think it's the most unhealthy way to run a community. We all have our different skills and talents, our varied ways of contributing to our communities and all should be valued. Moreover, psychologists have found a strong correlation between curiosity of mind (which leads to curiosity), and positive mental health outcomes2, which I think only serves to further underline the wisdom of the ADF definition of fertility.
1 Fertility American English definition and
synonyms | Macmillan Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved May 31, 2015, from
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/fertility
2
TALENT DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES : Articles.
(n.d.). Retrieved May 31, 2015, from
http://talentdevelop.com/articlelive/articles/901/1/Curiosity-an-Engine-of-Well-being-An-Interview-with-Todd-Kashdan/Page1.html
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