Ideas Have Consequences, Valeria Edition

Valeria Jacqueline Caplan, my first daughter, my fourth child, was born one day early yesterday.  Baby and mother are both doing very well.
 

As usual, I welcome my child’s birth with a reading from the book of Julian Simon:

One spring day about 1969 I visited the U.S. AID office on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., to discuss a project intended to lower fertility in less-developed countries. I arrived early for my appointment, so I strolled outside in the warm sunshine.  Below the building’s plaza I noticed a road sign that said “Iwo Jima Memorial.”  There came to me the memory of reading a eulogy delivered by a Jewish chaplain over the dead on the battlefield at Iwo Jima, saying something like, “How many who would have been a Mozart or a Michelangelo or an Einstein have we buried here?” And then I thought, Have I gone crazy? What business do I have trying to help arrange it that fewer human beings will be born, each one of whom might be a Mozart or a Michelangelo or an Einstein – or simply a joy to his or her family and community, and a person who will enjoy life.

Thanks for all your support for my fourth statement.  Posting will be interrupted for a few days.  Starting next week, I’ll be blogging from the night shift, baby willing.

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