i recently attended a conference. one of the seminars was on darwinian themes in contemporary psychology. i will spare you the psych lingo and boring details but give you information about darwin's mate selection strategy. while pondering on whether he should marry emma wedgwood, he noted pros and cons of the situation in handwriting. at the top, he marked "this is the question". he then listed a couple of things supporting his mate. actually, not the mate but any mate. "an object to cuddle with" caught my eye. baffled, the speaker directed us to another sentence: "better than a dog anyhow".
nice going mr. darwin!
given his objectivity and possibly extent of information on the other sex, this is not puzzling. it might come across as demeaning to women and an abhorrent thought after all. on the contrary...
he had paulie, his beloved dog, who died only 3 days after he passed away. darwin, in his writings, based some of his views and explanations to dog behavior (e.g., religion). these suggest that charles and paulie had such deep connection and love for one another. in turn, he did not belittle emma wedgwood but exalted her in the best way he knew how. she was the one to choose. in addition to her promising fertility, which was later supported by 10 children she gave birth to, she was better than paulie.
hip hup hurray for mr. charles darwin!
on a different note, there should be universal ethical laws on not to publish people's, whoever they are, very intimate decision processes.
still, all selected mates living in pet-free houses can now take a deep breath...
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