What exactly is my perspective on filial piety? In short, I no longer believe in it. I believed in it before I understood the true nature of my mom, before I fully believed in myself.

I think it’s an archaic idea and serves only the parents. Dogma works when people mindlessly live their lives without a sense of consequence for their actions. Everyone needs a moral code to live by and some will follow what has come before them and adopt it without challenging the ideas while others, the minority, work at a model that fits them, that makes sense, that they have thoughtfully decided with conviction and intention.

When I am aging and no longer able to care for myself, perhaps there will be someone to take me in and care for me. I would hope that they do it out of love and not a sense of duty. Guilt only takes you so far before one is buried in resentment and bitterness. I would not want my loved one to live their life that way. But love, love will take you beyond what is physically capable. Love is the activity of the source, the divine energy of nature. And when you can no longer make decisions out of love, it is time to look at alternatives.

If there is no one to take me in, I hope I have the means to take care of myself, preferably in my own home enjoying my own company and those of others if I so chose. And if I no longer have the means to take care of myself, I would prefer my life end peacefully rather be a burden to others. If I forget this resolution, I hope someone would remind me to read these words of my younger self.