"The sun is rising. See?" said Peter. "The glow on the curtain!"
"The... sun... is... not.... rising! Got that?" I mumbled from under the covers. "That's a lie. The sun does not move and you know it." "Everyone knows the sun doesn't actually rise," whispered Peter in my ear. At which I shot upright, and retorted "Oh, do they? Do they really? How many kids grow up assuming that the sun rises into the sky and then goes down the other side..., and it doesn't even figure in their thinking until they go to school because their parents don't tell them. Even then, how do you KNOW that everyone knows that the sun doesn't swing around the sky like some flaming ball? Not good enough. Oh yes, innocently said, but that's how lies are insinuated into brains. It's the way it 'looks', but is it the way it is?"
"But so much of language is like that!" said Peter. "Yes, I know." I replied, "And once upon a time people assumed that if you got in your boat and sailed out there, you would drop off the edge, because that's what it looked like."
The rooster tried desperately to pacify the owl's neck feathers, crooning, "Ooooo you're upset this morning. Another night of not enough sleep?"
"Yes," I replied. "I was thinking about that mother who rang with the really serious reaction last night, and how she was told it was 'coincidental', and that just because it happened after the vaccine, that doesn't mean it was related. She told me that the doctor said, 'We know that nothing happens after this vaccine.' She asked him how they knew, and he replied, 'Just because you can see something happen after a vaccine, doesn't mean that you understand what is happening.' What kind of an answer is that?"
Ranting on... "Of course, if like me, those things happen after an antibiotic, or anaesthetic, that's another matter. They stick me with a medic-alert bracelet for ad infinitum, BUT when it comes to vaccines, it's NEVER the vaccine. It's the tamarillos, the sticky plaster, maybe even an unsterile swab, but never a vaccine. You could drop dead in front of them after a vaccine, and it would never be a vaccine!"
"It's like what you said to me earlier, but in another way." I said flinging off the bedclothes. "A mother gets told ***The sun rises*** when it suits, but at other times, we mere mothers wouldn't possible understand, because it's a whole lot more complicated than that. So they say...."
As we reviewed the day, I couldn't help myself. "Come on, we have to go to town. And you'd better keep your eyes on the road this time!"
