Newton's First Law

Old Sir Issac was the first to say that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and that an object in uniform motion tends to stay in uniform motion unless acted upon by a net external force. What has that to do with Vivian? Stay with me.

Sometimes, Vivian gets into a crying fit. She starts sniffing, then crying, and finally, screaming. Nothing helps. Her face turns beetroot red and her hair gets matted with sweat. And then, after completey destroying our sanity, she suddenly stops.

When it starts, I first try to console her on my lap with my pinkie in her mouth. Next, comes the shoulder patting. Quickly followed by shoulder patting while walking and then dancing and humming, if possible outdoors. Then, a diaper change and a feeding. By this point, if she is still at it, I am at my wit's end. One night, remembering what Jo had said earlier, I tried doing the aeroplane with her, and she stopped. Another time, it was during the third verse of humming Scarborough Fair. Last night, I read aloud most of the twelfth chapter of Herman Hesse's Magister Ludi (it's taken me three attempts in 9 years to get this far - she may as well get started early).

That's where Newton comes in. Once Vivian stops crying, there's a very strong belief that whatever I just did was responsible for the calm, and a fervent hope that if I keep doing it, she will remain calm. Keep that net external force at bay and the baby will tend to stay in it's current state of blissfulness. Change anything and - pow - it's up shit creek all over again. Just keep at it - even if it's humming the third verse of Scarborough Fair till dawn.

When I was little, I had a hard time believing in the First Law. A cricket ball just didn't continue rolling forever. Duh. I have even less empirical reason for trusting in my application of the first law to infant psychology. But who needs evidence when hope goes such a long way. At this rate, I may even understand religion one day.