Baby + 214
Dear Daughter
You are learning to crawl. This is a source of pride for your parents. I can tell, however, that it is a cause of frustration for you. Crawling is taking a long time to master, and when you can see exactly where you want to go it is upsetting not to be able to get there. But this is an inevitable condition of existence, and I think it beneficial you should encounter an obstacle early in life. As Nietzsche said, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger."
If you could understand me I might try and persuade you that thumping the carpet would not help you to get from A to B (assuming it is B you wish to reach). Tears will not be much use either. But both are quite natural responses were any of us to find ourselves in the ideal crawling position without forward momentum.
You have, of course, learnt to crawl backwards. It is an odd human tendency to suppose that going backward has less merit than going forward. This is because we are not as a species all that imaginative at times, and our simplistic faith in the notion of progress compels us to suppose that we move forward into the future. As you grow older you will realise that our desire to categorise in this way leads us to do some odd things, such as calling some plants flowers and other weeds, and discarding the latter. Sadly and regrettably we sometimes do this about other humans, and this has often led people to hurt others. I hope you learn that this is wrong and teach others the same.
So I am proud that you have started crawling, and it does not worry me in the slightest that it is what convention would hold to be a crawl. (You will come to understand that your father does not have much time for conventions if they are plain silly or wrong.) What matters to me is that you have propulsion; and, importantly, you travel under your own steam.
You are trying to speak too, although it is perhaps nonsensical to call it such as you have no sense that this is what you are trying to do. Naturally I am proud as punch that you are saying "Dad-da" at regular intervals - at least that is what I hear (vanity precludes any other conclusion). I wouldn't want to contrast this unfavourably with the paucity of "Mo-ma" references, but I have noticed a discrepancy. Such judgement in one so young is admirable.
This is my letter to you on your 7 month anniversary. In two months time you will have been alive longer outside the womb than in. I find this profoundly moving, and I realise how fortunate we are to have you here with us.
With love from your father.
You are learning to crawl. This is a source of pride for your parents. I can tell, however, that it is a cause of frustration for you. Crawling is taking a long time to master, and when you can see exactly where you want to go it is upsetting not to be able to get there. But this is an inevitable condition of existence, and I think it beneficial you should encounter an obstacle early in life. As Nietzsche said, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger."
If you could understand me I might try and persuade you that thumping the carpet would not help you to get from A to B (assuming it is B you wish to reach). Tears will not be much use either. But both are quite natural responses were any of us to find ourselves in the ideal crawling position without forward momentum.
You have, of course, learnt to crawl backwards. It is an odd human tendency to suppose that going backward has less merit than going forward. This is because we are not as a species all that imaginative at times, and our simplistic faith in the notion of progress compels us to suppose that we move forward into the future. As you grow older you will realise that our desire to categorise in this way leads us to do some odd things, such as calling some plants flowers and other weeds, and discarding the latter. Sadly and regrettably we sometimes do this about other humans, and this has often led people to hurt others. I hope you learn that this is wrong and teach others the same.
So I am proud that you have started crawling, and it does not worry me in the slightest that it is what convention would hold to be a crawl. (You will come to understand that your father does not have much time for conventions if they are plain silly or wrong.) What matters to me is that you have propulsion; and, importantly, you travel under your own steam.
You are trying to speak too, although it is perhaps nonsensical to call it such as you have no sense that this is what you are trying to do. Naturally I am proud as punch that you are saying "Dad-da" at regular intervals - at least that is what I hear (vanity precludes any other conclusion). I wouldn't want to contrast this unfavourably with the paucity of "Mo-ma" references, but I have noticed a discrepancy. Such judgement in one so young is admirable.
This is my letter to you on your 7 month anniversary. In two months time you will have been alive longer outside the womb than in. I find this profoundly moving, and I realise how fortunate we are to have you here with us.
With love from your father.
posted by Jonathan McMahon at 8:14 PM
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