Sixty days and counting - Kim Stanley Robinson [81]
Joe, however, seemed unconcerned by his long day. “Hi Dad!” he said brightly from the blocks and trucks corner, where he had the undivided attention of a young woman who reminded Charlie of their old Gymboree friend Asta. “We’re playing chess!”
“Wow,” Charlie said, startled; but by the girl’s sweet grin, and the chess pieces strewn about the board and the floor, he saw that it was Joe’s version of chess, and the mayhem had been severe. “That’s really good, Joe! But now I’m here and it’s time, so can we help clean up and go?”
“Okay Dad.”
On the Metro ride home, Joe seemed tired but happy. “We had Cheerios for snack.”
“Oh good, you like Cheerios. Are you still hungry?”
“No, I’m good. Are you hungry, Dad?”
“Well, yes, a little bit.”
“Wanna cracker?” And he produced a worn fragment of a Wheat Thin from his pants pocket, dusted with lint.
“Thanks, Joe, that’s nice. Sure, I’ll take it.” He took the cracker and ate it. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”
“Beggars?”
“People who don’t have anything. People who ask you for money.”
“Money?”
“You know, money. The stuff people pay for things with, when they buy them.”
“Buy them?”
“Come on Joe. Please. It’s hard to explain what money is. Dollars. Quarters. Beggars are people who don’t have much money and they don’t have much of a way to get money. All they’ve got is the World Bank ripping their hearts out and eating their lives. So, the saying means, when you’re like a beggar, you can’t be too picky about choosing things when they’re offered to you.”
“What about Han? Is she too picky?”
“Well, I don’t know. Who’s Han?”
“Han is the morning teacher. She doesn’t like bagels.”
“I see! Well, that sounds too picky to me.”
“Right,” Joe said. “You get what you get.”
“That’s true,” Charlie said.
“You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit!” Joe declared, and beamed. Obviously this was a saying often repeated at the daycare. A mantra of sorts.
“That’s very true,” Charlie said. “Although to tell you the truth, I did just throw a fit.”
“Oh well.” Joe was observing the people getting on at the UDC stop, and Charlie looked up too. Students and workers, all going home late. “These things happen,” Joe said. He sat leaning against Charlie, his body relaxed, murmuring something to the tiny plastic soldier grasped in his fist, looking at the people in their bright-pink-seated car.
Then they were at the Bethesda stop, and off and up the long escalator to the street, and walking down Wisconsin together with the cars roaring by.
“Dad, let’s go in and get a cookie! Cookie!”
It was that block’s Starbucks, one of Joe’s favorite places.
“Oh Joe, we’ve got to get home, Mom and Nick are waiting to see us, they miss us.”
“Sure Dad. Whatever you say Dad.”
“Please, Joe! Don’t say that!”
“Okay Dad.”
Charlie shook his head as they walked on, his throat tight. He clutched Joe’s hand and let Joe swing their arms up and down.
Pleasure is a brain mechanism. It’s a product of natural selection, so it must help to make us more adaptive. Sexual attraction is an index of likely sexual pleasure.
Frank stopped in his reading. Was that true?
The introduction to this book claimed the collected sociobiological papers in it studied female sexual attractiveness exclusively because there were more data about it. Yeah right. Also, female sexual attractiveness was easier to see and describe and quantify, as it had more to do with physical qualities than with abstract attributes such as status or prowess or sense of humor. Yeah right! What about the fact that the authors of the articles were all male? Would Hrdy agree with any of these justifications? Or would she laugh outright?
Evolutionary psychology studies the adaptations made to solve the information-processing problems our ancestors faced over the last couple million years. The problems? Find food; select habitat; stay safe; choose