Only connect

After Maternity Hospital came the disease-of-the-week documentary. The children were still wide awake and were immediately captured by the pictures of the children with Harlequin Ichthyosis, a devastating skin condition. Isabelle wanted to know what was wrong with the babies. I explained how that everyone was different, and that some people were born looking very different indeed. But they were still just little babies. The children seemed quiet as they took in the pictures of the affected children as newborns.

Then up popped a picture of a newborn Harlequin child suckling on her mother.

"Num!" said Aidan, pointing and smiling.

It was as if he had made a connection. This was a little person just like him who found comfort at their mother's breast. She was like him. He seemed visibly more relaxed now, and snuggled down into me a bit further.

Wasn't it E.M. Forster, Passage to India? Only connect. If we find something in common with another human being, they suddenly become - well, more human. Different from us, but not scarily so anymore.