Note to self: post the landscape analogy at some point tomorrow.

Incidentally, to silently argue a point that is being raised verbally here in my office - of course juveniles of a very young age have an abstract understanding of right and wrong. This has never been under question by anyone. What they lack is a serious experiential basis for *really* knowing the difference, on a more visceral level. This is not even the issue, though. They don't understand a lot of things, grief not being the first of them, but one thing that we just don't realize is how little they truly understand the nature of permanence. Sure, we all know the next year is going to be 2003, etc etc et all, but does anyone remember just how long of a time that was when we were that age? Our time perception is altered as we age, and we are much more able to truly feel the passage of time. Someone may know that ten years from now is a long time, and that an action taken now will have a consequence that will last that long or longer, but how many at a very young age really realize how much happens in ten years? My god, in 24 scarce years I can already look back and see an eternity stretching out behind me. I am so much closer and farther from the concept of adult as semi-divine that small children have that the concept loses all meaning. Do you understand? Things that I can explain in words, truly explain, to the point where the person recieving them would eventually develop an superficial abstract understanding of exatcly what I was talking about, continue to have no meaning! The quest for communication of meaning is something central to our beings, so anything that thwarts that process has to be profound, and too big to truly get a handle on. Fifteen years of your life is like that, you know? Quick! In two words, explain the last fifteen years of your life to me! No doubt some of you came up with profound answers, but I still don't know about the best and worst day you had in may, seven years ago. You could probably figure it out, though, if you tried really hard. Think about who you were as a child, about all that you were. Now think about what you weren't - everything you have become and experienced since then. I'm going to make this simple.

THIS IS WHY WE DO NOT TRY CHILDREN AS ADULTS!!!!!!! (Especially those with single digit ages - my god, people)