A beautiful project : Bottlenose Dolphins of the Patos Lagoon, in Southern Brazil When I see this I keep thinking of my "road not taken" many years ago, when I considered being a biologist. Oh well, too late now.

Red Hats

New post at the Wooden Box: Red Hats

To Our Children

October 12th is Children´s Day in Brazil. Although I don´t like those kind of celebrations (women´s day, children´s day etc) per se, I think they might be useful to make us think about and discuss ways of improving as a society. In this case, I would like that all children in Brazil had the right to be children, and therefore had responsible adults to care for them and to help them become independent when time comes. For that, parents will have to act as parents and teachers will have to act as teachers.

Children need a lot of appreciation, but they also need limits, so that they develop empathy. A big problem we face today as a society is that parents and teachers are confused about their role so, children suffer. Anxious, depressed, and sad kids are being misdiagnosed for mental disorders and treated for things they don´t have, when what they really needed was attention and care. On the other hand, children who need medical treatment are being neglected and taken as "incorrectable little monsters".

A child is a joy. A sometimes exhausting, irritating, time-consuming joy, but nonetheless a joy.  Watching them grow ( be them our own or a friend´s or a  family member´s ) is the most wonderful moment in the experience of being human. They take us back to our inner child and make us see life in a whole different way, because priorities change. The trust they put on us should never be broken.

Adults don´t have and shouldn´t have all the answers and children know that. What kids really want and we can certainly give them is all our love. Without "ifs" and "maybes". Unconditionally.

Despite a great loss I experienced in childhood, I remember it as a happy one. Thanks to the adults who were there for me.