Some Thoughts on Why Babies Cry

Two people talking:

"We don't know do we? We just know that's it's unanimous.

No happy babies?

No, and they try so hard bless their hearts.

Maybe they know what's coming.

It's very puzzling. That people seem to find it natural. Don't you think that's sad? That no one is concerned? Maybe you're right. That they know what's coming. They seem to be of one mind. It's a troubling thing, isn't it? You can't help but think that they bring their despair into the world with them. Still I can't imagine that they cry in the womb. Even though they might want to........................

It's not that I think so much that babies have opinions. I think it's mostly that they just don't like it here.............as soon as they get here they start wailing. I don't think it has to be the here that's wrong. It could be us. For instance. What if we've become something repugnant to ourselves. That's not a happy thought, is it? Babies early on come to believe that all the things that are happening to them are the work of others otherwise what are the others there for? Isn't that worth crying about?

Why can't they just be wet or hungry?

They can. But these are normally just things that you complain about and not things over which you scream in agony."

These are excerpts from a longer conversation between two characters in The Passenger, a novel written by Cormac McCarthy. I separated them out because this is the heavy stuff that inflamed my emotions.

It's just a different take on things. It's a way of looking at things from a perspective fueled by thought versus acceptance.

Ultimately, the fact that Jackson smiles at Craig and Amanda, after two months on this planet, proves to me that parents hold more power and carry more responsibility than other humans. By far.

This makes me happy.

Please note: This is one of the many reasons you read Cormac McCarthy.