Adoption

I just finished watching Disney's Tarzan. Everybody knows the story of Tarzan so the studio tried to go a different direction with it. They tried to look at it from a new angle and what they got was a partial study on what it means to be adopted. In this case, it was adoption of the gorilla/human variety but adoption, none the less. It got me thinking about adoption and what it means to be adopted.

From a strict biological viewpoint, I guess you could say that adoption is providing for offspring that don't carry your hereditary information. But it seems to me that it's worth taking a second look at how we view it. The whole arrangement of adoption is too large for a linear scientific definition.

I'm starting to think that we're all sort of adopted.

Why do I take care of Baby J? It's not because I want her to carry my genes on to the next generation. In fact, I don't see myself in her at all. She doesn't look like me. If I hadn't been in the delivery room, the doctors could have just handed me some other baby and said she was mine. I would have probably believed them.

I think I care for Baby J because I adopted her. Just like I adopted my wife. Just like I adopted my family. At one point in my life, all these people were strangers to me. There must be some kind of biochemical process in our brains that makes us love our children, spouses, siblings, parents, and anyone else who care about for that matter. This process takes time to develop. The process of connecting with each other is sort of like adoption.

We become open to others who need us and, at the same time, grow to need them as well. I think that's what adoption means. At least to me anyway.

Listening To: Radiolarians III by Medeski, Martin, and Wood