ATENAS DE ALAJUELA, COSTA RICA - When a male baboon gets into conflict with a neighbor, he will begin to gather up stones and hold them in the crook of his arm, ready to throw at close range. It is not uncommon during such tense moments for the female baboon to walk over to her mate, and remove the stones from his "arsenal," tossing them back onto the ground, one by one. This interplay will continue -- the male picking up stones, the female tossing them back down -- until the male's anger cools, and he goes off and finds something else to do.

In our species, also, it is often women, and especially mothers, who step in to be the peacemakers. Besides whatever hard wiring is involved, the experience of bearing and nurturing children helps to make women more empathic and understanding.

They also tend to see more easily that communication is a better avenue to pursue than violence in resolving conflict.

Having recently become a father, I get to observe first-hand the fount of nurturance (not to mention breast milk) my wife has become since we had our son. Baby's special presence in our home has also led me to reflect on why newborns bring us so much hope.

I think it has to do with the fact that no matter how tough the world gets, they still arrive soft, vulnerable and needing love. They remind us of our own tender beginnings, and of all the care we received along the way. In their needy, eager eyes, and in the immediate, visceral response of their mothers, we see that human life begins with a relationship in which love and care are paramount.

To those of us lucky enough to have sufficiently had these things, Mother's Day is a good opportunity for us to count our blessings -- and call our mothers.

Here in Costa Rica, where we've been living for several years, people go further than that: on Mother's Day all the stores are closed, everyone has off from work and they spend the day visiting their mothers. You see big family get-togethers all over, somewhat like our Fourth of July, but they're not celebrating national independence. Rather, they're celebrating a common miracle, one so easily taken for granted: motherhood.

In previous generations in the U.S., a visit to Mom on Mother's Day was probably the norm. Nowadays, a virtual -- that is, Internet -- hug is often the most some mothers can expect. This strays quite far from the original mother-baby relationship, one that was not, thank heavens, virtual.

As with the behavior of the male and female baboons, by observing nature in action we are shown something quite fundamental: the cry of a newborn cannot be responded to on a cell phone or computer monitor. It must be answered with a warm pair of arms and a loving heart.

(Mark Klempner is a folklorist and author of "The Heart Has Reasons: Holocaust Rescuers and Their Stories of Courage," published in March. He can be reached through www.hearthasreasons.com