This picture is for my mom and dad. Tina and I watched their golden lab this weekend and were given strict instructions not to allow their dog onto our bed the way we allow our own; we might undo months of careful training and make him impossible to keep off of the beds at their house.
We set out with the best of intentions to honor their wishes, but then Rusty peed on our rug. I think this makes us even. Doesn’t he look so happy up there?
This picture was taken just a few minutes too late. My dog and cat were laying very close to each other, and their respective black and white markings made them look very much like a Yin-Yang symbol. That’s cool on it’s own, but it’s made even better by the fact that it was a cat and a dog laying beside each other that formed the symbol. Trouble is, the dog got up and followed me when I went to get the camera, so the shot was ruined.
That would have been a great picture to have, though. I thought about forcing them to lay down in the same position again, but that didn’t seem to jibe very well with the spirit of the whole yin-yang thing. Besides, it’s not easy to force a cat to do anything, let alone getting her to lie down nose-to-rear with a dog so that the guy who forgets to feed her all the time can get a picture. No, you’ll have to settle for this picture instead.
This is one of the ways that Cora smiles. Well, maybe “smile” isn’t
the right word, but it’s the face she makes when she’s excited about
something. Much like someone just tipping the hill in a roller coaster,
she tenses her muscles, throws her mouth open, and starts shrieking and
hooting.
This is an expression of pure anticipation: she knows what’s coming
and she can’t wait. She’s full of excitement and, man, is she happy!
This expression tends to only show up for experiences that are fairly
new to her; or at least ones that haven’t lost their luster.
As her parent, I love what this expression means.
Whenever I see this face, it means that my little girl is pushing the
boundaries of her existence, doing something that’s new and exciting,
and enjoying the ecstasy of exploration. She’s discovering the world
that I already know, and she’s telling me that, as a newcomer, this is
the coolest place she’s ever been.
It’s just like that roller coaster I mentioned earlier:
the exhilaration we all feel — have to feel — when we’re
taking that plunge. I haven’t shrieked with joyful anticipation over
anything in a
long time. Cora says that it’s my own fault. She says that playing in
the bath is so much fun that it’s worth a shriek just thinking about it.
She says that there has never been anything as cool as a swing set on a
playground in a park near a lake, seeming to say, “This is no time to
be nonchalant: this is a playground!”
I try to show
Cora the world through my eyes, but I think on this score she may be
right, and I may need to see it her way. I think I need to take that
ride and find that coaster and tip that hill and shriek, just because
there’s so much fun to be had!
The word of the day is: infra dig. This is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase “infra dignitatem,” meaning that something is beneath one’s dignity.
Now, I can imagine myself saying ?infra dignitatem,? but not the abbreviated form that Merriam Webster suggests. ?Infra dig? sounds like the result of some Ivy League law school?s student body being swept up in the disco culture of the 1970s, you dig? Groovy.
I?m trying to think of the last thing that I declined to do because I thought it was beneath my dignity. I was at a wedding two weeks ago where I didn?t do much dancing for fear of looking stupid: I guess that counts as an attempt to protect my dignity, huh? And specifically with regard to line dances like the Electric Slide, I?m not going anywhere near that dance floor. If you don?t know how to dance to a free dance, you can at least remain inconspicuous by moving left and right to the beat. If you don?t know how to dance a line dance, it?s going to become obvious to everybody pretty quickly.
But I don’t actually consider dancing to be beneath my dignity: I dance waltzes and swing dances because I’ve taken lessons and no longer fear making a fool of myself with them. I guess it’s looking silly in front of others that I want to avoid. A quick lesson on how to do the Electric Slide would relieve my fears, but I still don?t want to learn as I go; and in front of spectators, no less!
I just got done putting Cora back to bed. For any interested parents-to-be out there, here’s a page from the baby survival guide. When baby wakes up at 2 a.m. crying, it’s a good thing. That means you just have to change a diaper or make a bottle, and then baby will go back to sleep. When baby wakes up at 2 a.m. giggling, it’s a bad thing. That means that baby thinks she’s gotten enough rest and is ready to start the day.
I’m certainly glad I went to college: where else would I have learned the wee-hour-of-the-morning skills that still serve me so well today? That baby didn’t realize who she was messing with. <crunch of beer can on forehead>
The word of the day is: vanguard.
The vanguard is the leading edge of a movement: the persons or things leading the way. As such, I don’t have much first hand experience with it; I’m a committed “keep your head down and hope no one will notice” kind of guy.
Vanguard was also a video game for the Atari 2600. If I remember correctly, it involved flying a ship around the screen and shooting at things. The little ship was somewhat difficult to maneuver.
I think that vocabulary is to language what flavor is to good nutrition. We could all get by on a high school vocabulary just like we could all get by eating dog food, but where’s the fun in that? The careful arrangement of just the right words adds spice and texture to language.
That’s why I’m a big fan of the Merriam-Webster website. They offer some terrific services, including a Word of the Day mailing list. Needless to say, I’m on the list.
So, since they send me a new word every day, I’m going to use some of those words as departure points for log entries. Expect the first installment soon.
A lyric from Darrell Evans got stuck in my head after titling the last entry “Down on my Knees.”
Your goodness led me to repentance
I was down on my knees
Instead of judgement, You gave me mercy.
And now I’m living in Your presence
Your love still flows so free
And, Lord, You take good care of me…
Cora?s getting ready to crawl. I don?t think she knows that, but all of the pieces are coming together. She definitely wriggles a lot more than she used to, and she can form a “bridge” by supporting herself on her hands and knees. She also rolls around a lot when she?s on the floor. She doesn?t roll in the directed sense of rolling from here to there, but in the less-purposeful sense of just rolling and rolling and rolling because she can.
My point is not that she?s about to crawl, but that she doesn?t realize she?s about to crawl. She?s just stretching for toys that are out of reach. She doesn?t appreciate the fact that trying to get to those toys is making her muscles stronger and improving her coordination.
Of course, she?s just a baby now, and what motivates her to all of this work isn?t very sophisticated. Her desire is simply to reach the purple elephant. But long after she?s lost interest in the purple elephant, crawling will still prove useful. Long after she’s lost interest in crawling, her strength and coordination will still prove useful.
Metaphorically speaking, how many purple elephants have I gone after in my life? How many of my current ambitions are tomorrow’s purple elephants? What am I going to learn in the process of chasing them? Is there a qualitative relationship between the things that motivate me and the person I become?
Your presence freshens everything, your laughter brings joy, and your touch carries electricity. I can never get enough of your love.
But I’m not the one you came to see, and your smile is only polite, and when our hands brushed you didn’t notice. I can never get enough of your love.
