Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Safe in his father's arms

After the last blog, I was in a shopping center going down an escalator, and in front of me was (I presume) a father holding his infant son. The baby's face was all scrunched up like  he was really trying, at any second, to get that cry out. I wondered if the father began to talk to him, if the baby would stop crying. The father pointed up to distract the baby into looking at a giant mobile hanging from the ceiling. The more the escalator traveled downward, the more the baby wanted to cry. When they reached the bottom, the father turned and got on the escalator going back up. The baby seemed satisfied and kept looking up at the moving mobile.

I thought what an experience to be embedded in the baby's subconscious. That baby will never consciously remember that particular experience, but the sense of safety in his father's arms will be a subconscious memory.

People need to feel safe. For women particularly, it's one of the primary needs that a man can provide. Even in basic psychology, Maslow's hierarchy of needs lists safety on the second level. That is why, as a society, we feel so assaulted when our sense of safety is threatened.

Our prayers and thoughts are with the families of the victims of the Boston Marathon.

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