I’ve always had an uncomfortable feeling about the Adam and Eve story though – I guess it’s because Eve got the blame. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall.

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I’m not sure that I believe in Adam and Eve though. I believe in God but I don’t really believe that all that we read in the bible is true. For all we know, so crazy person on drugs could have written all that.

We could do the same now – we could write a totally invented story and people a couple of thousands of years down the line could believe it was true.

Hi Jannie – I’m not well-versed in Montessori’s teachings, so I found your mention a fascinating corollary to this post. Thank you. I do remember hearing in Early Childhood learning circles from those days, that one could count on an even/odd six month trajectory with children. You’d get six months of great, and then six months of “adjusting” to new behaviors. It seemed to bear out with my children, although I wouldn’t discount a self-fulfilling prophecy, either! Thank you.

Hi Honey – LOL – we can always find you serving up whatever and whoever’s in the house.

Hi Cath – This experience with my son was a defining moment in my life in so many ways. On one level – the most disassociative one – it was fascinating to learn and observe. Premature babies act and respond very differently than full-term babies. Their needs and complications are escalated to high alerts and their responses are so radical – they literally shut down from stress, and can fade away without drastic intervention.

The NICU was like walking into the future with all the technology, lights, buzzers, alarms. (Nowadays, it’s a much quieter, soothing environment). At the same time, dealing with my son and his tiny neighbors was an opportunity to look inside the womb for almost 3 months. When he started looking and acting more like a “real” baby, I was saddened in a way. It was as if we were moving away from the miraculous. But then I found out there were other miracles to come.

I think what you say about only putting the good in, rather than the bad, has a mythical connotation. Weren’t Adam and Eve originally perfect and ageless? Wasn’t physical death only manifested after temptation? Thanks and again, so good to have you back and feeling better.

Hi Patricia – Yes, I remember you mentioning your daughter’s unique set of attributes. It is so challenging, isn’t it? Since this was my first parenting experience, I had to throw the books away. I can remember wishing fervently – “all I want is a C student, good in sports. Do people with kids like that know how lucky they are?”

We also were told compensatory effects would kick in. And the compensations were amazing in their scope. There was very little specific prognostication, but I do remember being told he might never walk or write his name. Pfffttt! He made all-conference in adapted athletics and has an Associates Degree in broadcasting. And yes, he can write his own name. So, ultimately, God answered me. I got my C student, good in sports.

I think it’s the fluidity of justification in some ethical circles that bothers me the most. And the lack of empathy. There is no substitute for experience, yet we each process our own differently and reach individual conclusions.

And, in another conversation I saw recently, the participants seemed to feel that we are savvy and sophisticated enough to adapt and override shady ethics in marketing and advertising. I’m not sure about that. Collectively, we can’t seem to shake off the perception that current times are the equivalent of the Great Depression when they most certainly don’t even come close. How are we going to resist youth-enizing face cream? (Pun intended).

Thanks to all of you for furthering the topic. Especially, Pete, who is now serving dopamine cocktails.

I hardest part of my working life has been working with new parents with hard birth stories and parents who know there are huge abnormalities with their unborn child…making ethical decisions is a tough go for doctors and parents and whole groups of people.

One church in town dumped so much garbage in our yard during one decision making cycle, that the garbage truck came everyday to pick up and my children were shipped out to my Mother’s house. They were responding to an untrue rumor/newspaper story and making death threats and they knew nothing of what they were talking about or what I was involved with….and it was all taking place in Iowa not anywhere that I lived.

I wish I could think that advertisers would turn up their ethical vision – but since Phillip Morris bought Kraft and is doing the same kind of advertising as they did for cigarettes. I don’t find myself very hopeful or optimistic.

Very well done post and information sharing…I love studying this stuff. Thank you

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Like you, I worry that it could be taken to far though. It would be nice to rid the world of terrible crime – but it would just take another nut, like Hitler, who wanted to experiment on live brains and clone himself – then where we would be.

I hope that we will find a way to make these improvements, without medical intervention. But I wonder if that could only happen, if the good we put into the world as a whole, is greater than the bad. I only wish we knew how to go about making that happen.

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And Maria Montessori was SO RIGHT that the final plane of childhood ends about 24 years of age, as she grouped the “sensitive stages” in roughly 6 year periods, (with the the sub-age of 3 to 6 in a category all its own. ) Unfortunately she never lived to see her theory proven, as she died in old age while researching that 18-to-24 year old phase. She’s probably up in heaven giving a big hurrah at these scientific brain findings.

God bless you and your son, what a miracle.

Oh, and more dopamine, please!

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