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Bonavista, Newfoundland

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Christopher Greaves

Babies Bodies

This is still about Energy. Please don’t email me and say that I’m heartless. I’m not. I avoid treading on ants, and can be seen lifting a waterlogged worm from the concrete footpath and placing it back on the grass.

I’m so clucky that I stand in line to hold and cuddle the latest addition to the human race, when it is presented in my client’s office.

Today’s Toronto star ( http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/662664 ) runs a story about a toddler who survived a two-storey plunge down a shopping mall elevator shaft yesterday.

We should not be surprised.

We are, of course, delighted that no apparent harm was done. I’ll bet that any lasting damage is more likely to be found in the parent than in the child.

Why should we not be surprised?

Well, in “River Out Of Eden”, Richard Dawkins begins the with a startling, yet true claim on behalf of all organisms that have ever lived: not a single one of our ancestors died before they reached adulthood and begot at least one child.

Babies (of all mammals and most animals anywhere) are built to survive.

Bones are soft, eyes are protected in sockets recessed into bony skulls, baby fat is still available to absorb some of the energy that is implicit when a body falls, converting potential energy into kinetic energy. (see also “ Energy - again! ”).

Babies are born prematurely; they have to be born before their head grows too big to exit the womb, but brain development proceeds for at least another three years (have you any specific memories prior to your third birthday). The bones and the body in general is still incapable of survival, is still being formed.

Think of a baby as a machine that has evolved to survive falling out of trees, off rocks, rolling down hillsides, getting knocked to the ground by boisterous siblings and so on, and you’ll start to see a baby as an energy-absorbing machine.

And relax; I still like cuddling them.

709-218-7927 CPRGreaves@gmail.com

Bonavista, Friday, December 20, 2024 4:34 PM

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