Monday, October 20, 2008

Natural Selection?

Tonight I took my 10 year old and 18 year old to Walmart to pick up some things for my class in the morning. As we were coming back out to the car, I looked down and saw a syringe lying on the ground. I said, "Look at that! A syringe lying on the ground. I'm going to throw it away." My son said, "Mom, don't touch it, just kick it in to the bushes." I said, "And have it stick in to my shoe? No way, I'm just going to pick it up and throw it away." He said, "No, don't touch it, just leave it there." I said, "I'm not going to leave it there for someone to reuse, they could die from that." My son said, "So what Mom, that's natural selection."

I threw it in the trash can. Did I thwart evolution? ;)

5 comments:

Max Coutinho said...

LOL LOL...

Hey D!

I like the way your son thinks lol :D!

No, I don't think you thwarted evolution...but others may beg to differ LOL *nodding*!

Cheers

Me said...

I suppose its faintly possible that some addict who would otherwise have used the syringe might now, by your actions, have avoided a fatal overdose or infection before they had children. If so you have certainly had a small part in altering the course of evolution.

Your son has a rather starker interpretation of the role of evolution in our society than most scientists would have though!

Dee Ice Hole said...

The fact is you should have had protection on your hands before you touched it and you should have disposed of it in a SHARPS receptical. The dude that dumps the trash could be poked by the needle and end up infected---you may have got Hepatitis A germs from the hypodermic. I know it sucks that everything that appears simple isn't anymore---too much crap going on in hte world.

Native Minnow said...

You didn't thwart evolution because there's no genetic trait that makes someone less susceptible to being poked. You did a good thing, but Dee Ice Hole is right. I hope the custodians didn't get poked.

Looney said...

I tried to argue before that unshielded nuclear power plants are good because the radiation would cause more mutations and therefore accelerate evolution. No one has agreed with me yet, but perhaps your son might?