The social womb 🦧

Apparently human babies would need 9-12 more months in the womb to be as neurologically and cognitively developed as our closest living relatives, chimpanzees.

When I read this, I was like, “holy s***, we’re even more interdependent than I thought!” It’s like our womb-time is ½ inside the mother’s body, and half societal. I’d heard of the “fourth trimester” but this is next level.

This kind of perspective helps me remember how foundational relating is. Interdependence has been ontologically defining us all along. I’m a proud American—and Texan at that!—so I love independence. And solitude. But it’s not as exclusively fundamental as I sometimes pretend. Knowing this helps me not lapse into self victimization. What about your upbringing? What does this kind of view do for you?

With love, Jordan