Your World

“Well, as long as the baby wasn’t crying, it was okay,” she said.  I was speaking to someone about an observation I had made in a local grocery store.  A young woman, maybe sixteen years-old, had stuffed her newborn baby into her grocery cart.  When she noticed that I was staring at the baby, she yanked it out, and started adjusting its little coat.

As long as it wasn’t crying, it was okay….

I had mixed feelings about this conversation.  I was, at first, shocked at the response.  Then, after a few days, I realized that kangaroos stick their babies in pouches.  I’ve never heard of baby kangaroos complaining, and maybe she was right.

Maybe humanity isn’t far from the kangaroo species, I thought.  And, maybe I expect too much from them.  Then, my thoughts shifted from the miracle of birth, to the miracle of survival.  That human beings actually reach adulthood, is the true miracle, considering how they are raised.

And, abused.

And, stuffed into grocery carts.

I have always joked that I never belonged here.  On Earth.  But, then again, it doesn’t even make sense to feel that way, unless I have some sort of comparison.  Another civilization, perhaps.  Where infants are held in high regard.

Not only in grocery stores.

But, behind closed doors, as well.  I am well aware that many humans are quite different to their offspring in public, as opposed to in their private homes.

Either way, it sickens me.  But, in order to survive my observations, I am reminded of something I was told many, many years ago:

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Don’t expect normalcy, from what is not normal.