Paternal Instinct

Had my first experience with 'auto-response' paternal instinct today. Faiz, Mao and I were playing outside, or rather, Faiz was abusing Mao and I was trying to teach him how to respect fellow living things (not successful so far).

Either Faiz or Mao stumbled upon a nest of hornets, and one latched itself to Faiz's ear. I flicked it off and held flailing-Faiz tight as I pulled out the sting from his ear lobe. Meanwhile two hornets had stung me and their stings are probably still under my skin (yes, they are throbbing and hurting). But at the time it didn't seem like a concern and all I could think of was to get Faiz in, and the sting out.

Selfless sacrifice must be evolutionaly-embedded . Never really thought about it before.

Good news is that Faiz is not allergic to bee stings.