Several months ago, Pope Francis warned married couples not to forego children in favor of having "a dog, two cats," and offered a cautionary description of childless old age "in solitude, with the bitterness of loneliness."
The admonition, possibly influenced by record low birth rates in Italy and elsewhere, evoked several surreal scenes in my head from Raising Arizona, the Coen brothers' own cautionary tale which speaks to the primal desire for offspring, the yearning for perpetuation of self, and the radical transformation babies effectuate on everyone from adoptive mothers to ex-cons.
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