Thursday, March 20, 2008

The Great Communicator

No, Ronald Reagan is not the topic of conversation today. I'm giving that title to Harrison for now. Not that Tru doesn't qualify. It's amazing how infants can quite clearly express emotions at impressive decibel levels. But I'm referring to the adult that is living in my little H-man's body. He snuck in a while ago and is getting quite bold and not even trying to disguise himself anymore. Did he think I wouldn't notice? Like a two-and-a-half (almost) year-old is really going to stroll by you in the kitchen and pause just long enough to amiably mention, "Pretty cold outside, Mom." Or, "Shhh, Baby Trumanator, Mommy here," as he distractedly peruses the contents of my shopping cart. And what about the time I ran upstairs to grab my wallet, came back down without it being in my hand (hey--moms have a lot on their minds) and he just cocked his head to one side and said with just a touch of, dare I say, pity in his eyes, "Wallet?"

Who ARE you? Of course, he'll be quick to tell you if you ask, "Me Air-sin, Mom, me Air-sin." But I'm not so sure.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

I've got the bug

Something about the change of seasons brings out the poet in me. Don't get me wrong, I don't like to write it, but I keep having bits of prose and stanzas of delicious morsels that I read a long time ago pop in my head as I drink in the sunshine and breeze on my skin. I'm going to bless you with a little Thorough for anyone who is also feeling similarly inspired. Love that guy:

Man was born. Whether that Artificer of things,
The origin of a better world, made him from the divine seed;
Or the earth, being recent and lately sundered from the high
Ether, retained some seeds of cognate heaven."

A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts. We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty. We loiter in winter while it is already spring. In a pleasant spring morning all men's sins are forgiven. Such a day is a truce to vice. While such a sun holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may return. Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors. You may have known your neighbor yesterday for a thief, a drunkard, or a sensualist, and merely pitied or despised him, and despaired of the world; but the sun shines bright and warm this first spring morning, recreating the world, and you meet him at some serene work, and see how it is exhausted and debauched veins expand with still joy and bless the new day, feel the spring influence with the innocence of infancy, and all his faults are forgotten. There is not only an atmosphere of good will about him, but even a savor of holiness groping for expression, blindly and ineffectually perhaps, like a new-born instinct, and for a short hour the south hill-side echoes to no vulgar jest. You see some innocent fair shoots preparing to burst from his gnarled rind and try another year's life, tender and fresh as the youngest plant. Even he has entered into the joy of his Lord. Why the jailer does not leave open his prison doors -- why the judge does not dismis his case -- why the preacher does not dismiss his congregation! It is because they do not obey the hint which God gives them, nor accept the pardon which he freely offers to all.

Amen, Henry David, Amen.