Categories
Connecting

On being a parent

In a quiet moment of sharing, Jonathon Delacour wrote:

Though I don’t believe in regrets, I have just one: that I don’t have a child. All my closest friends have children and every time they invite me to their homes, I feel a sense of gratitude that I’ve been able to share the intimacies of family life. I’m well aware that I’m getting many of the pleasures with none of the pain, but the rewards seem so great that I’m always left wondering at what point I took the wrong turn.

Making the decision to have a child or not is the single most defining moment in our lives. No one act we take can have greater impact. No one act we take should have greater impact in our lives.

Think about it — when you have a child, you’re bringing a new person into the world. You’re teaching this new person love and happiness and sharing and the values and beliefs you think are important. You have the front seat of a show starring this new person, watching as she or he grows and becomes something unique and special. From my own childless perspective, I can’t imagine that there isn’t a parent anywhere who doesn’t sit down daily and marvel at what they’ve done.

However, with the marvel also comes the complexity in raising a child. When I watch my brother with his kids, it looks to me as if there is a daily negotiation between him and each child about what rules apply, because every day new circumstances occur and new rules need to be made to meet these circumstances. Even the rules themselves have rules — when should the parent intervene, when should the parent step back and let the child learn the lessons they need to learn?

In my own field, I have had difficulty working with neural networks; a child is the greatest neural network there is. The thought of all that complexity, frankly, scares me.

Adding to the complexity is the issue of maintaining your own individuality, separate from your role and identity as “parent”. You want to provide what the child needs, but you’re also a unique person with needs of your own. Again, as an observer, it seems to me that you have to walk this delicate balancing act of being “you” the parent and “you” the unique individual.

I made the decision years ago not to have children. The reasons were many, and complex, and beyond the scope of this posting. I don’t have regrets about not having a child, but I do wonder sometimes about where I would be and what I would be doing today if I had children. Of course, being in my 40’s it’s still not too late to have children, though the risk of complications increase as you get older. Sometimes I even think about the possibility of adopting an older child, raising him or her as a single parent.

However, I think there are people, such as myself, who just weren’t meant to have children. I genuinely feel I wouldn’t make a good parent. In fact, the thought of being a parent scares me to death

Categories
Critters

Just another morning

It starts with an Argentinian ant invasion. While I was waiting for the exterminator this morning, I received a phone call from another weblogger. Lovely voice. Witty conversation. Wonderful surprise.

Just as I’m hanging up the phone, the exterminator came and after I showed her where the little buggers were entering my home, I took off to let her do her thing.

Normally I walk along Crissy Fields in the evening, but today was too nice to stay inside. As I was walking along the beach I watched the pelicans fishing just offshore.

Pelicans are my favorite bird. They look as if they couldn’t fly more than a few feet, but I’ve seen them fly into gale force winds with barely a struggle. And their landing! They circle lower and lower, than a quick crashing dive bomb into the water, splashing water high into the air — absolutely no subtlety in their movements. Fearless.

Pelicans are almost completely indifferent to humanity. They’re neither overly impacted by nor all that dependent on us. For the most part, they just ignore us. They’re large enough to have few predators, and aggressive enough to ensure they get what they need to survive. A truly beautiful, arrogant bird.

So this morning I walked along the beach with the wind in my hair and the sun in my face, watching the pelicans exhibit their mastery over water and air — truly king over all they fly.

Damn!

I didn’t know sharks got that big in the Bay…

Categories
Political Weblogging

And so much for journalism

Meryl Yourish and Glenn Reynolds responded to my email and article link yesterday.

So much for weblogging as journalism. And the truth shall set you free, right?