Here is...

I wrote this almost a year ago, just before I found out my life was going to be changed irrevocably by the presence of my baby daughter- it was an interesting bout of irony and coincidence. I wanted to share it to take some of the bit away from the primary wars, and to give a more human face to the many personal stories that make up our backgrounds.

Here is being born; here is breathing, here is crying. Here is moving, here is grasping, here is coordination. Here is rolling over; here is sitting up, here is crawling, here is walking; here is walking without falling down. Here is feeling, here is seeing, here is understanding and anticipating.

Here is imitating; here is innovation. Here is uttering; here is repetition; here is language and here is speech. Here is laughter; here is awe and here is wonder. Here is inquisitiveness, here is intuition, here is incredulity.

Here is running; here is playing; here is pretending; here is finding hero and pretending to be them. Here is riding a bike, here is riding a bike without training wheels, here is rising a bike without falling down. Here is falling down and skinning your knee, and here is getting back up and trying again.

Here is good and here is bad; here is distinguishing the two; here is enduring one to attain the other. Here is causing it, and here is experiencing it.

Here is beauty, here is repugnancy. Here is anguish and here is joy; here is the sunrise over the ocean and here is a cold rainy day.

Here is fear, and here is courage. Here is experiencing the former and showing the later; here is overcoming and conquering the fear.

Here is individualism; here is making decisions; here is living with the consequences.

Here is being taught; here is learning. Here is knowing, here is knowing more than anyone else; here is humility and here is why experience is the best teacher.

Here is passion, here is lust. Here is deciphering the two.

Here is love; here is hate. Here is unconditional love; here is your family's love, your friends'. Here is friendship and here is sacrifice; Here is loving with all your heart; here is heartbreak. Here is depression and here is misery; here pain and here suffering (because you must!). Here is moving on and here is learning to love again.

Here, this: all that I have, all that I know, all that is within me that I have to pass on to you. Take these things, these seeds of knowledge, and plant them in yourself. Tend to them well- nurture them with experience, water them with time, cast upon them the rays of unrequited existence. I ask nothing for this, nothing of you, but that you add a layer or two; and when the time comes, pass them on to your children, and plant the seeds in them, too.



Display:


Re: Here is... (2.00 / 1)

Beautifully done! Thanks for sharing. Can you bring that good spirit to your other posts?


by pan230oh on Sun May 18, 2008 at 01:28:53 PM EST

Re: Here is... (2.00 / 3)

I certainly hope so.


Hooray for John McCain!
by ragekage on Sun May 18, 2008 at 01:33:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Here is... (2.00 / 2)

Anyone else, feel free to join in, of course.


Hooray for John McCain!
by ragekage on Sun May 18, 2008 at 01:33:27 PM EST

I like, I like. (none / 0)

Posts like these make me look forward to fatherhood...someday. :^)


should we go outside? / should we break some bread? / are you'nterested?
by Firewall on Sun May 18, 2008 at 01:36:29 PM EST

Re: I like, I like. (2.00 / 2)

There's nothing like it, man. Try not seeing this for the first time and crying. Actually, though, I didn't cry when I saw it- I was too overawed. I actually exclaimed, out loud, "THIS IS SO COOL!" which made the nurses and doctors laugh.


Hooray for John McCain!
by ragekage on Sun May 18, 2008 at 01:41:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: I like, I like. (none / 0)

There are millions of kids who could use anyone to spend just an hour or two a day or a week in their lives. Take fatherhood for a test drive!
by Jeter on Sun May 18, 2008 at 04:15:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Here is... (2.00 / 1)

Here is to sincerely hoping your precious daughter is never treated the way Hillary has being portrayed in the media.


Wisdom Is The Reward For Listening Over A Lifetime
by gunner on Sun May 18, 2008 at 01:54:14 PM EST

Re: Here is... (none / 0)

Here is to refraining from inappropriate partisan responses to the sincere sharing of life experience.


The future is unwritten
by Strummerson on Sun May 18, 2008 at 06:33:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

That's really beautiful. (2.00 / 1)

I was smiling the whole time I read it.

You have, perhaps, done a better job of humanizing yourself than any other Obama supporter on this site. Sometimes it's easy to forget that there's a real person with a life and a soul behind an anonymous user name. By sharing personal stories, you've made it impossible for us to forget that.

(You and your daughter are both really adorable, by the way -- that time you posted a picture of her sleeping on your chest, I couldn't help but say, "Aww." And I'm really not a mushy person.)


Support forced pregnancy? Vote John McCain 2008!
by sricki on Sun May 18, 2008 at 01:58:15 PM EST

Re: That's really beautiful. (2.00 / 2)

Thanks, sricki, she is really something. And I think that showing a human face is going to be key to establishing unity in this party. It gets awfully hard to hate someone the more you know about them and how much they're like you.


Hooray for John McCain!
by ragekage on Sun May 18, 2008 at 02:14:14 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Here is... (none / 0)

Very touching, RK.  Thanks for sharing it!


Unseen, in the background, Fate was quietly slipping the lead into the boxing glove.
by fogiv on Sun May 18, 2008 at 02:49:36 PM EST

Re: Here is... (none / 0)

So glad you shared more photos ragecage - I feel like doing the same. Me and my kids on July 4th, US Embassy, London, three years ago.

Me ali katy

Enjoy your kids. They grow up so quickly


Pointing to the inadequacies of John McCain
by duende on Sun May 18, 2008 at 04:30:22 PM EST

Very nice nt. (none / 0)


Student Guy=JoeMentum. No really Student Guy=JoeMentum, after all JoeMentum was an embarrassment so is Student Guy. This sig is FAIL!!
by Student Guy on Sun May 18, 2008 at 05:37:05 PM EST

Not wishing to dominate your diary (none / 0)

But here's a poem I wrote for my daughter when she was about 1 year old

MY STRONG DAUGHTER

My daughter's getting stronger,
More surely holds herself
Day by day
She takes a few more steps
Before collapsing
In heaps of laughter
At her own success

My daughter's getting stronger,
Knows where she is
Smiles to see us,
Yells when we leave
She's grasped that things can both be and not.
She's learned how to hold things and
Let them drop.

My daughter's getting older.
Taking a finger she
Leads us slowly around the world,
Practising how to be free and tall,
While we learn to bend to stoop to crawl.

Newton would be proud.
Refuting the laws of gravity
My daughter shakes her head with the trees,
Falls backwards down stone stairs and cries,
Picks herself up off the floor again and flies

Every hour passing faster never coming back


Pointing to the inadequacies of John McCain
by duende on Sun May 18, 2008 at 05:59:41 PM EST

Re: Not wishing to dominate your diary (none / 0)

Not in the slightest; your contributions are welcome and much appreciated.


Hooray for John McCain!
by ragekage on Sun May 18, 2008 at 07:05:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]


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