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Doctor Hammer's avatar

Editor's Note: I removed a long comment thread here. Not because anyone said anything particularly horrible or got in trouble or anything, it was just the result of some bad days interacting. I just pulled everything at the request of all involved, since it all got hugged out offline and we all felt a little silly.

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Grant Smith's avatar

I like this allegory. I think it is reflective of common experience that flows as a consequence of certain biological generalities. We all need someone to fulfill these fundamental roles in our lives, or at least having someone, or even different people fill each of these roles help us develop into fully actualized human beings. I know I'm a lot more risk tolerant than my wife. I don't get nearly as nervous when my daughters go high on a swing, or fast on a scooter. It is therefore more natural for me to encourage my children to push their limits. On the other hand, this risk tolerance has downsides that are routinely offset by the vigilance and intrinsic risk aversion of mama bear. Having access to both hearth and wild correlates to some kind of cosmic balance we would probably all benefit from. Don't necessarily need to get it from mom or dad, but having exposure to both safety and challenge parallels our basic physiology down to the major divisions of the autonomic nervous system.

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