“I certainly don't think it's inevitable that we don't love children who don't carry our own DNA. If that were true we wouldn't have millions of successful adoptions to consider. I do think that it's harder to love a child when you come into that child's life after the unrequited passion of infancy and early childhood has passed.” IfsThinkingChildrenPassionMillionsSuccessfulChildhoodHarderInevitableAdoptionDnaInfancyUnrequitedChildren LoveEarly Childhood Author:Ayelet Waldman
“At last, in the gray dawn of Civilization the fire in the Soul dies down. The dwindling powers rise to one more, half-successful, effort of creation, and produce the Classicism that is common to all dying Cultures. The soul thinks once again, and in Romanticism looks back piteously to its childhood; then finally, weary, reluctant, cold, it loses its desire to be, and, as in Imperial Rome, wishes itself out of the overlong daylight and back in the darkness of protomysticism in the womb of the mother in the grave.” ThinkingLooksSoulLastsMotherDesireDiesCultureWishLosesCommonEffortHalfDarknessSuccessfulFireChildhoodDyingCreationProduceColdCivilizationGravesDawnGrayRomeWearyWombReluctantRomanticismDaylightClassicism Book:The decline of the West Source: The decline of the West
“Behavior runs in deep channels that were cut during early childhood, and it is very difficult to alter them. In order to change a deeply ingrained pattern, you have to build a sturdy dam, dig another canal and reroute the river in the new direction. That effort is rarely successful over the long haul.” LongRunningOrderDifficultEffortSuccessfulCuttingChildhoodBehaviorRiversPatternsHaulDamsEarly ChildhoodCanalsSturdyNew DirectionsLong Haul Book:Life on the Edge Source: Life on the Edge