Baby + 270
Is this the world's most neglected Blog, I wonder? I have no way of answering this question, of course, but it has been so long since I last entered some text that I am mocking the essential idea of a Blog: that it is an expression of things current. Have I created an anti-Blog?
Such a lot has happened since I last put fingers to keyboard. Chief among these events is my daughter's decision to stand, albeit with a support, such as a cot, washing machine, or convenient parental leg. It is hard to make sense of the emotion on seeing your child vertical; it is almost as if in that moment she had made the transition from babyhood to something recognisably childlike.
Before she started to balance on two legs, I had been pondering whether sitting or crawling is a more significant development. I think there is a popular view that crawling is the more significant of the two events. However, because it involves using all four legs, and the crouch which goes with crawling is necessarily a poor position from which to survey the world, I think the crawl is more inhibiting that a sitting position. I have watched my daughter make sense of the world, manipulate objects, and organise her thoughts while sitting still. I will encourage her to continue this reflective stance. To paraphrase Pascal, many of men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone. Purposeful stasis can broaden the mind far more than travel as travel rarely involves imagination; indeed visiting a place one had imagined is invariably disappointing.
Now that my daughter is palpably a curious and happy human being I have found I am desperately keen to return home before she goes to bed. In recent weeks this impulse has pulled hard at my insides, and any time lost getting home is massively frustrating. Mercifully I have a very short journey. I could not imagine missing these times; I won't get them with her again.
Someone not spending enough time with my daughter is Mr Donk Donk. I have still not given him new Duracell life power; in fact I haven't seen him for weeks. The new cot favourite is Barney Bear. He is perhaps more of a parental than daughter favourite as he seems to have a power over junior such that she sleeps when he is proximate. Amazingly he achieves this without any electrical circuits - he is an old-fashioned, self-propelled Bear.
Please raise a glass to Barney.
I should also mention a strange incident last week in which I was abused (verbally) on a bus by a middle-aged woman. The circumstances are not important (crowded bus etc.), but it is safe to assume that 30+ degree temperatures had not helped her mood. I let her exhortations to move into non-existance space wash over me at the time, but I am drawn to conclude that the social order may be starting to invert in some odd Ballardian fashion when bus pass holders start to attack younger passengers. As there are so many baby boomers, it may be time to revaluate the source of societal threats. I doubt a Hoodie would either want, or be able to lambast fellow passengers with detailed exhortations on the seating rules for London Transport buses...
Such a lot has happened since I last put fingers to keyboard. Chief among these events is my daughter's decision to stand, albeit with a support, such as a cot, washing machine, or convenient parental leg. It is hard to make sense of the emotion on seeing your child vertical; it is almost as if in that moment she had made the transition from babyhood to something recognisably childlike.
Before she started to balance on two legs, I had been pondering whether sitting or crawling is a more significant development. I think there is a popular view that crawling is the more significant of the two events. However, because it involves using all four legs, and the crouch which goes with crawling is necessarily a poor position from which to survey the world, I think the crawl is more inhibiting that a sitting position. I have watched my daughter make sense of the world, manipulate objects, and organise her thoughts while sitting still. I will encourage her to continue this reflective stance. To paraphrase Pascal, many of men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone. Purposeful stasis can broaden the mind far more than travel as travel rarely involves imagination; indeed visiting a place one had imagined is invariably disappointing.
Now that my daughter is palpably a curious and happy human being I have found I am desperately keen to return home before she goes to bed. In recent weeks this impulse has pulled hard at my insides, and any time lost getting home is massively frustrating. Mercifully I have a very short journey. I could not imagine missing these times; I won't get them with her again.
Someone not spending enough time with my daughter is Mr Donk Donk. I have still not given him new Duracell life power; in fact I haven't seen him for weeks. The new cot favourite is Barney Bear. He is perhaps more of a parental than daughter favourite as he seems to have a power over junior such that she sleeps when he is proximate. Amazingly he achieves this without any electrical circuits - he is an old-fashioned, self-propelled Bear.
Please raise a glass to Barney.
I should also mention a strange incident last week in which I was abused (verbally) on a bus by a middle-aged woman. The circumstances are not important (crowded bus etc.), but it is safe to assume that 30+ degree temperatures had not helped her mood. I let her exhortations to move into non-existance space wash over me at the time, but I am drawn to conclude that the social order may be starting to invert in some odd Ballardian fashion when bus pass holders start to attack younger passengers. As there are so many baby boomers, it may be time to revaluate the source of societal threats. I doubt a Hoodie would either want, or be able to lambast fellow passengers with detailed exhortations on the seating rules for London Transport buses...
posted by Jonathan McMahon at 9:30 PM
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