It's interesting and disturbing to think about what must be the effect of contemporary life on basic human behaviour, isn't it? I mean, we now live in a world where people are so overscheduled and pressed for time that they're reduced to nursing infants behind the wheel of a moving vehicle, or abandoning them in cars for what I can only assume must be the momentary convenience of running errands without them.

I read a harrowing story about a mother of 5 who was so rushed and distracted while getting ready to drive the kids to school one morning that she backed over her 2 year old child in the driveway AND DIDN'T NOTICE. Some years back there was a father in our town who'd put his infant son in his car seat on top of the car while he strapped his toddler in. He drove off and was actually barrelling down the highway with the child on top of the car before it was brought to his attention. The child was fine (God only knows what happened to Dad when he got home!!!), but I had nightmares for weeks after hearing about it.

It all begs the question: what are we *doing* to ourselves?? Everyone I know seems to be rushing in 7 directions at any given time, we can never give our full attention to anything because we're always trying to deal with whatever's coming next...no wonder the instance of clinical depression in "highly developed" countries is skyrocketing! We don't even allow ourselves time to be human anymore.