Mother’s have always been forced to make difficult decisions about how to protect, feed, defend and nurture their offspring. Boys vrs girls, strong vrs weak, smart vrs dumb - if there are limited resources and only primary caretaker it becomes a matter of life and death. In some primates species, mothers will allow a conquering male to kill her infant sired by a previous mate before she mates with the new male.  Nature is tough and unemotional. In some South American cultures newborns are not named or even touched much for the first year - so many die that the investments are not made until the babies prove their survival strength. Of course this lack of touch and bonding causes much of the death all by itself.  I find these stories heart-wrenching and hard to accept. My privileged life allows me to make sure both of my young daughters get everything they need and lots they don’t. Will my children be weak as a result?

How do these same principles apply to other creative acts? Are you forced to make hard choices about what projects you can work on?