From: Olga Bourlin (fauxever@sprynet.com)
Date: Sat Jun 01 2002 - 20:34:17 MDT
Olga Bourlin
From: "steve" <steve365@btinternet.com>
> From: "Brian Phillips" <deepbluehalo@earthlink.net>
>
...of my relations ...> > doesn't mean I don't have a clear and consistent
obligation to them, to> > protect them, to guard their interests.
>
> Really? Where does this obligation come from? I can see a responsibility
to
> parents (up to a point) and to peope with whom I've voluntarily chosen to
> associate but how do I have an obligation to kin (close genetic relatives
I
> presume)?
I tend to agree. One is choice (friends), the other chance (blood ties).
Although, if we happen to get a blood relation whom we can love and admire
about as much as someone we "choose" to love and admire - now, that's a
powerful combination. But how often does that happen? The "choice" menu is
vast, compared to the "chance" menu.
I do have a special bond with my children - I feel it was a privilege to
observe them grow up, and they have become good people whom I know more
intimately than most other people due to circumstances of "chance." No
matter what - I'll never observe anyone else in my life from the moment of
birth on - the whole fragile, ephemeral and poignant cycle of life. We have
many special ties-that-bind. Yet they are their own people (i.e., my son
believes in capital punishment, I'm adamantly opposed; I have less than no
interest in sports, my daughter reads the sports pages and "loves to see the
Lakers lose").
My husband and I were on a water taxi going across Puget Sound a few hours
ago. The boat veered, and a 2-year-old fell and hurt himself, and was
crying inconsolably for a time. His parents were administering to him, but
I got such a powerful urge to go over to the little boy and comfort him
myself. I mean, the feeling was very strong, and the kid was a complete
stranger to me. Choice? Chance? At that moment, I had no clear idea - I
was "on" at a purely animal level. My husband told me about an article he
read of how humans respond to the meeows of domesticated cats more than cats
in the wild - because the domesticated cats make noises more like human
babies.
Olga
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