Sunday, July 10, 2005

Survival of the cutest...?

Sometimes I think God made babies cute and beautiful so that they survive the initial years. Nobody feels like harming anything that is beautiful. Beauty evokes a sense of admiration and drives away all other negative emotions.

When I was a kid, I found out that one of my friends had an old violin in his attic. My interest in musical instruments persuaded him to get it out of the attic. The case was dirty with all the dust from years of neglect. We took it outside to dust it off. As soon as I opened the case, a couple of small eggs fell out. These were lizard eggs. As soon as the eggs hit the ground, they broke and two tiny lizards came out. The lizards immediately ran and hid behind nearby bushes. I was amazed. How could an animal, a few seconds after birth, know what is dangerous and what is safe? The lizards must have that information imprinted in their genes, so that they instinctively know these things. I have seen day old or even minutes old off springs of several animals, and the lizard was the only one with these instincts. Of course, others had different basic instincts, but not this advanced. The lizard may not be advanced compared to us, but it does come into this world far more advanced than many other beings (including humans).

Human beings are the most vulnerable when born. They do not have the basic instinct, but for sucking. They are so fragile, they would not survive in the wild even for a day. No wonder mortality rate was so high in the primitive world. It takes humans almost close to a year before they are capable of anything that is self-preserving. Of course, they do have an annoying cry that can drive anyone crazy (no wonder military is experimenting with the sound of a baby cry as a weapon), but not enough to defend themselves from preying animals.