Saturday, August 11, 2018
We Protect Our Children. That's Only Natural.
By: Donovan Baldwin
We protect our children. That's only natural.
When I look back on MY childhood, in a much different era, place, and with different dangers, I am sometimes surprised that I survived.
I spent days alone in the woods climbing trees, encountering snakes and strangers, finding all sorts of things which I inspected without fear of contamination, including discarded magazines which enhanced my knowledge of anatomy... somewhat, swam in Pensacola Bay, shot guns, used knives, threw rocks and shot whittled arrows from a homemade bow, at people doing the same to me.
I rode my bicycle in traffic every day, in my early teens getting up at 3 A.M. to ride my bike to an isolated place to get my newspapers and deliver them in the dark by myself.
Had the usual boyhood fights and arguments, and no-holds-barred football games and wrestling matches. Climbed everything... trees, walls, and even a couple of buildings.
Still, somehow, I made it here.
As a grown up, in dangerous occupations, I survived, at least in part, because I knew what I was doing.
As a kid?
Not sure HOW I made it.
Just a spin of Lady Luck's wheel, I guess.
Anyway, that, and Sister Mary Fides, and that dear little storytelling Irish priest, Father Cunningham, set my imagination in gear, and on fire, so that the boy's body, and mind, took it from there, and always did something with the memories.
Just meandering thoughts arriving here this morning.
We protect our children. That's only natural.
When I look back on MY childhood, in a much different era, place, and with different dangers, I am sometimes surprised that I survived.
I spent days alone in the woods climbing trees, encountering snakes and strangers, finding all sorts of things which I inspected without fear of contamination, including discarded magazines which enhanced my knowledge of anatomy... somewhat, swam in Pensacola Bay, shot guns, used knives, threw rocks and shot whittled arrows from a homemade bow, at people doing the same to me.
I rode my bicycle in traffic every day, in my early teens getting up at 3 A.M. to ride my bike to an isolated place to get my newspapers and deliver them in the dark by myself.
Had the usual boyhood fights and arguments, and no-holds-barred football games and wrestling matches. Climbed everything... trees, walls, and even a couple of buildings.
Still, somehow, I made it here.
As a grown up, in dangerous occupations, I survived, at least in part, because I knew what I was doing.
As a kid?
Not sure HOW I made it.
Just a spin of Lady Luck's wheel, I guess.
Anyway, that, and Sister Mary Fides, and that dear little storytelling Irish priest, Father Cunningham, set my imagination in gear, and on fire, so that the boy's body, and mind, took it from there, and always did something with the memories.
Just meandering thoughts arriving here this morning.
Labels: boyhood, childhood, children, donovan baldwin, Irish priest, Pensacola Bay, survival
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Are People Good Or Bad/
By: Donovan Baldwin
From time to time, I read articles, essays, and op eds, about whether humans are inherently "good" or "bad".
Like most people who think, or comment, about these sorts of things, I guess I would have to admit that I don't really KNOW, I just have my thoughts and opinions.
One major difficulty is that the concepts of good and bad vary from culture to culture, and from person to person.
One person's "good" might be another's "bad", or on a different point on some "sliding scale" between the two extremes.
I think we DO try to achieve survival, at a personal level, and at a genus/species level.
People not only want to do things to survive, but, want the human race to survive (most of us).
All of this has to do with the reason I am so often nonjudgmental about personal choices.
Oh, I want to survive too, and, if your choices seem to threaten my survival (person or progeny), I am apt to make another choice...which you won't like, probably. However, realizing that the "other guy" is just trying to survive, in a way that meets his or her beliefs, gives me some latitude in the realm of forgiveness, and, allows me to feel better about my decisions and choices as well...even when OUR choices and decisions seem to be at odds with each other.
I feel, thinking out loud, that it's the inability to accept the other's desire for survival, and, see theirs and ours as opinions, not fact, that causes a lot of the dissention between people in this world.
Like most people who think, or comment, about these sorts of things, I guess I would have to admit that I don't really KNOW, I just have my thoughts and opinions.
One major difficulty is that the concepts of good and bad vary from culture to culture, and from person to person.
One person's "good" might be another's "bad", or on a different point on some "sliding scale" between the two extremes.
I think we DO try to achieve survival, at a personal level, and at a genus/species level.
People not only want to do things to survive, but, want the human race to survive (most of us).
All of this has to do with the reason I am so often nonjudgmental about personal choices.
Oh, I want to survive too, and, if your choices seem to threaten my survival (person or progeny), I am apt to make another choice...which you won't like, probably. However, realizing that the "other guy" is just trying to survive, in a way that meets his or her beliefs, gives me some latitude in the realm of forgiveness, and, allows me to feel better about my decisions and choices as well...even when OUR choices and decisions seem to be at odds with each other.
I feel, thinking out loud, that it's the inability to accept the other's desire for survival, and, see theirs and ours as opinions, not fact, that causes a lot of the dissention between people in this world.
Labels: bad, donovan baldwin, good, human race, life lesson, survival
