of important lessons for us too, if we take care to listen.

It's easy to play it tough

nowadays, to overdo independence but to have survived we all needed as he does an extraordinary

amount of care from those around us. He is a reminder that no-one makes themselves and

therefore that we're heavily in someone usually under acknowledged debt and should perhaps

call, our mother.

As adults we give love chiefly because of what others can do for us, but

he doesn't deserve much of anything. He can't do a thing for anyone. He cries too much and

is asleep most of the time yet we devote ourselves to him nevertheless. So he teaches us about

the truest, purest kind of love. Which means giving affection without expecting anything

in return simply because someone needs help and one happens to be in a position to give it.

He can't of course, tell us what is wrong with him. We have to guess; but what's striking

is how generous we are in interpreting what could be at stake. When he cries we don't

accuse him of being mean. When he hits or kicks we assume he must be frightened or momentarily

vexed. We are constantly aware it might just be hunger, a tricky digestive tract or a lack

of sleep. How kind we would be if we could be similarly imaginative around adults.

If we could look beneath their surface behaviour, the unpleasantness, viciousness and grumpiness...

and can trust that here too it was probably also just fear, pain or exhaustion.

It's easy to get sickened by our species,

the greed, the status consciousness, the vanity, we should

hang out with him as a corrective. He doesn't care what you do or how much you're making.

He cares about laughter, friendship, people who are nice to him. We were all like this once.

It's society that corrupted us and encouraged our unhealthier impulses. He's a political

philosopher, he pointing to how we might all be if only the world would be

newly and better arranged.