Isn't it amazing? A newborn baby knows how to cry, to suck, to smile, to follow the eyes of its primary care giver?

A child has an incredibly flexible ability to learn whatever language it starts to hear, and, indeed, multiple languages if exposed to them?

It's somehow 'in there', a part of the genetic inheritance we are all endowed with, developed over millions of years of evolution. It seems that we have the ability to connect up what is inside of us with what is outside of us.

We are also very adaptable and flexible. It is as though we have templates or patterns within us that allow us to make an interpretation of the reality outside of us. We 'pattern-match' to the expectations we have and make a connection. A baby will suck on a nipple or a feeding bottle or a dummy or a thumb or a nose. The message inside is something like 'suck on anything that approximates to a nipple and it might feed you'.

Pattern matching carries on throughout or lives. I guess education works like this. Is it that we connect up that which is outside of us with what is inside of us? But of course as we progress we accumulate a whole lot more inside of us, new skills, experiences, memories that can be retrieved. Sometimes this is where things get tricky. Our flexible, adaptive, pattern matching mind/brains can get us into bother at times.

There will be more...but enough for early morning I sense.