It is a beautiful late summer day. The sun is beginning to slant at a different angle. It is fifteen degrees colder than it was last week. More people are in the neighborhood, looking busier, walking faster. Vacations are over, everyone is back from where they went, getting back to work.
Still, everyone I have been seeing is suffering from th economy in some way. The problem is world-wide. The necessary solutions are complex. Battle lines are being drawn, no one wants to be the victim, so everyone loses.
But this weekend I spent taking care of the ten-month old bundle of energy and amazement. She crawls, climbs, giggles and laughs out loud at everything that pleases her. What pleases her includes plastic bottles that spin, doors that have two sides, pulling herself up on a coffee table and taking everything off of it. Keys and cell=phones seem to be the biggest prizes, and gravity is something worth demonstrating over and over. However, making a ball go up in the air, against gravity, produces gales of laughter.
It will be years before this new, round, mostly pink person has any idea how skeptical her grandfather is about human judgement, and interpersonal interactions. The economy is good where she is. Her parents are very good to her. They keep her healthy and safe and encourage her to grow. She also has about fifteen other relatives and friends who smile back at her every time she smiles, which is most of the time.
Obviously, there will be another generation to keep this all going. There will be another member of our family from our other child, coming with two weeks. Despite all that is wrong with the world it is always thrilling and encouraging to spend time with a healthy, happy baby. It seems to bring out instinctual hope.
I realize that a lot of children are not a fortunate as this one. But the most imprtant factor is that any child feels safe, welcome and nurtured. I will do the best I can to help this one and the next one to explore, learn and be amazed. If they can enjoy doing that, and enjoy begin here, it will help everyone. everywhere.
All politics are local. As local as the kitchen floor.
2 comments:
those are my favorite sort of politics, the ones at floor level. Enjoy your grandbaby they are truly precious. I always feel emotionally refreshed after looking at the world thru their eyes
I think it's so cute the way babies and toddlers prefer the real set of keys and the real cell phone to the Fisher-Price versions.
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