If a Tree Falls in the Forest.....?

I was on the phone with my best friend Elaine last night and a thought popped into my head: if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, did it actually make a sound?

Then I asked her if I write something on my blog and no one reads it, did I actually write it?

Which is somewhat related, and brings me to the quantum physics analogy of Schrödinger's cat:
If you put a cat in a box and seal it off, how do you know if the cat is alive or dead one day after putting the cat in the box? Since you don’t know for sure, then the cat is simultaneously alive and dead because you can have both thoughts in your mind at the same time.  There is no reality but for the mind thinking it.

Unfortunately, I think that that is the philosophical model my kids abided by when they were in high school: If Mom doesn’t think I am drinking, then I am not. If Mom thinks I am at Jackie’s house, then that’s where I am. If my friends leave the house before Mom gets home, then they weren’t really there. If Mom doesn’t think it is so, then it isn’t really so. Except that in the cat analogy, all you have to do is open the damned box to see if the feline is still breathing. In fact, all you have to do is shake the box a little bit to determine its state of being. Figuring out if the cat is dead or alive isn’t that difficult with only the tiniest bit of effort.

My husband and I were at a Christmas party in town a few years ago and we left earlier than anticipated to pick my daughter Briana up at her twin friends' house. She had sworn to us that she and her friends were going to watch some television in their basement for the evening--a girl’s night-- 94 % fat free popcorn and diet coke. Estrogen only. No worries. So my husband and I didn’t call first before picking her up—we didn’t see a need to. In fact, I am pretty sure  we didn’t even check up on her over the course of the evening since we were so at ease with her plans. Confident, we went to her friends' house and rang the bell to retrieve her. My husband waited in the car.

The mother took a while, but eventually answered the door. She looked at me a bit confused and said Hi, what’s up? I said I am here to pick up Briana. The Mom said Oh..uh…Briana and the girls aren’t here. They are at some boy’s house over on Whitehall Blvd. They have been there all night I think (she thinks?). With that, I pull out my phone while still standing on the doorstep of the house and call Briana. She picks up. I sweetly ask her how her evening is going and gently inquire where she is (no need to shake the cat box too violently at first). She tells me she is at her friends' house watching TV. I say Really? She says Yes Mom. I say Really? Are you sure?. She says Mom you never trust me. Of course I am at their house. That’s when I lost it. I tore open that box and nearly choked that damned cat to death.

My kids always forgot that I was a really good student. I graduated magna cum laude.  I got A’s in both physics and logic. In anatomy class we dissected cats.