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Showing posts from October, 2008

Just, In The Interests Of Others

On a bright and shiny day, a young woman carried her newborn child through the open door of a fire station, laid the little bundle next to the wall, and promptly vanished into the pedestrian traffic, never to be heard from again. Pinned to the baby’s bunting was a hand-written note that simply said, "Please take care of my baby." Why would a mother do that? For what reason—or multitude of reasons—would a mother abandon her child like that? Is it possible to explain this so that it makes sense? Perhaps the young woman was not emotionally ready to take on the responsibility of motherhood. Maybe she was all alone in the world with no one to help care for her and her newborn. If so, her isolation probably contributed to a profound sense of fear and maybe even shame. There may have been other factors involved. Maybe the young mother found herself in circumstances that she could not "control." Maybe time and place had already decided that she wasn’t going to realize her h