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People always seem excited by those little bundles of joy. I guess it’s a different matter entirely if you find out you’re a father when you answer the door. Expect a package, end up with another mouth to feed. Who do these storks think they are, anyway?

And where are they getting all these human babies? Do they have some secret laboratory in which they create and raise their adorable payload? Why don’t they just let humans do what they’re supposed to and get it on, as they say? This blog post hasn’t got many answers, only more questions, it seems.

I’m not sure about how it goes for the rest of the world, but here in the good ol’ US of A, it’s pretty commonplace to tell kids any number of wild stories about where babies come from. For many of us, we’re told that the majestic Stork delivers them to parents’ doorsteps (or in some terrifying iterations, down the chimney) when the time is right for them to have a child. Others hear that babies come from a seed, often a watermelon or similar fruit, that grew into a child in its mother’s stomach. There are a great many versions of this concept all driving toward the same point: deceiving our children about the mysteries of sex.

Sex is an incredible thing and has been seen as a powerful act for thousands of years across the entire globe. While there have been generations in the past that were clearly much more open with each other and with their children about just what, exactly, all the fuss is about, there have also been generations that exhibited the same, less enthusiastic, public attitudes present today in America. One of the more confusing aspects for people today to look back on is the world of sexual and fertility symbolism. Take the stork, for example, most people today aren’t entirely sure why a stork is used in the fairy tales we tell our kids about babies, but if we examine the origins and the animal itself, it makes sense. Storks have been seen as fertility symbols for quite some time in areas all across Europe. An excellent parent, the stork tends to its children for longer than other birds. It also gives the appearance of fidelity to a single stork partner, due to certain nesting habits. Add to this the fact that storks often returned to Europe from Africa around the time that the majority of people were giving birth in a year, and you’ve got one great symbol of fertility and parenting.

The stork certainly isn’t the only fertility symbol out there. Though it may seem strange to many of us today, frogs have long been seen as symbols of fertility, as well. Many other creatures have taken on this role throughout history.

So if you’re not quite ready for kids and typical contraception doesn’t seem like enough to you, just keep an eye out for storks, frogs, and the rest of their fertile ilk. You never know if one of them might be coming to drop off a little package at your house!

Hey check it out, some new fan-art from Byron Chapman featuring a Dire Owl! We need more comics with them, don’t we?

Haven’t checked out the fan-art section yet? Do so here.

If you’d like to do your own, email me (k@10km.org) with your artwork and a link if you’d like me to include one! Thanks to all you awesome people who have done some!