spoiled rods spare the rod spoil the child. everyone has heard this one. google it. you'll find all sorts of information. like it's not in the bible, exactly. like it goes back, way back. like to the time when people first started writing stuff down. and like what exactly is a rod. everything you ever wanted to know. except what i want to know. what does it mean to be spoiled? and what age is a child? words change meaning over the years. today, spoiled means veruka salt from willie wonka. but in the past it could have meant a kid who's unable to control their actions and cannot grok social contexts. child today means anyone under the age of 18. heh. my grandmother and great-grandmother were married and had children of their own at 16. i'm thinking in this context it might have meant preschool. old enough to get into serious trouble. but not old enough to have figured that out yet. hey, reality is a dangerous place. you have to pay attention to it. or it'll hurt you. good lesson to learn. early. parents have been taking the rod to children for millions of years. i wouldn't be surprised if human brains took a bit of an evolutionary shortcut to take advantage of this reliable stimulus. ie humans don't have hard wired instinct for every possible scenario. instead we learn about the world. which apparently, is a better way. assuming of course, you can survive through the years where you haven't yet learned what you need to know.  ¶ 8:00 AM