The Week in Review

I've mentioned a few times on this blog that while I am so excited about the potential in Harrison and for his life, I also live in fear of his loss of innocence. Right now, his capacity for trust is amazing. His period of stranger-anxiety lasted all of two weeks back in late March, but now he's such a brave little boy. He struts his little bow-legged strut fearlessly up and down the driveway, up and down our street, at the park, and at my office. He smiles at strangers in the supermarket and pulls himself up on the pantlegs and skirts of my friends.

On Saturday on our way out of the public market, Doug stood by with Harrison in the Kelty (thanks, Ash!) while I was at a stall buying some green beans and cantaloupes when we heard some scuffling and looked up to see two young boys, maybe fifteen years old, being pinned to the ground by two uniformed police officers, who had guns drawn. The police then removed a shiny silver gun from one of the boys. The shoppers and vendors went on about their business while the boys lay there on the ground and the officers finished patting them down and then handcuffed them.

I suppose we could have gotten hurt in the scuffle, but when we went back to the car I quietly cried behind my sunglasses thinking about those boys and my boy and wondering what happened to them and how an incident like that has become the norm in an urban market filled with immigrants, farmers, and yuppies like us—something to glance up at briefly but then quickly dismiss. It's too difficult and overwhelming to really consider the tangled reasons related mostly to racism and accompanying poverty, but also to sprawl, education, mcmansions, drugs, consumerism, hopelessness….and the list goes on. And it's everyone's fault. And so few people care. And even fewer people do anything to change it.

But these were boys. Young boys. And I'm sure their mamas got a terrible phone call that morning and it probably wasn't the first time.

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We'll call Tuesday Black Tuesday, because Dubya came. Thousands of Rochestarians came out to support him and hear him talk about social security. About 750 of us attended a peaceful protest downtown to voice our dissent with his various policies. It was depressing and exhilarating all at once, as I always find protests and rallies to be. I was struck and inspired by the number of elderly people there, and by the attendance of students and families with their children. I stood on Court Street across from about 7 kids under the age of 15. They were holding a gigantic banner that said, "No blood for oil" and were hooting and hollering at the passing cars and having a ball.

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On Wednesday I watched Finding Neverland for the second time. It's a film about a lot of things, but two of the main themes are loss of innocence in children and the importance of remaining creative, optimistic, and filled with hope and imagination. It's a beautiful film, and this time I cried even harder when Johnny Depp's character said, "young boys should never go to bed; they always wake up a day older.”

This week, everything seemed to point me in the same direction: I can't keep Harrison a little boy forever, but I don't want him to grow up too quickly either. I want him to be recognize his privilege and learn empathy and compassion for others. I will do my best to teach him about the world as I understand it and encourage him to want to learn about it for himself. And I hope he never loses the amazing capacity for laughter, mischief-making, trust, love, and faith in humanity that he has now.

Image: Lounge II

Image: Lounge

Let Freedom Ring!

Let it be known that at 7:15, on the evening of 24 May 2005, our household was officially freed from the bonds of economic slavery to the formula corporations when the one-year-old Harrison successfully (and happily) consumed and digested his first bottle of whole bovine milk!

Hip! Hip! HURRAY!

Bbbb-Bad to the Bone

I have attempted to reconstruct Harrison's apparent to-do list from this weekend:

1. throw toys behind baby gate into fireplace
2. pull photo albums out of book case
3. when presented with food on spoon, eat 4 bites, then bat spoon away
4. when presented with finger foods, eat 1 bite, spit out, but accept same food on spoon
5. find sleeping cat, pull said cat's fur/tail/ears
6. eat any extracted fur resulting from #5
7. pull lid off kitchen garbage
8. once lid has been removed, pull kitchen garbage onto floor
9. wait for bathroom door to be mistakenly left open in order to a. unroll toilet paper; b. put hands in cats' water bowl; c. figure out how to flush toilet by violently jiggling toilet handle; d. eat dirty kleenex found in bathroom waste basket
10. remove doorstops intended to prevent swinging of doors
11. swing doors open/closed repeatedly until fingers/toes are pinched
12. attempt to pick up any ants encountered outside
13. remove all clean diapers from basket on changing table
14. remove all barricades placed in front of wastebasket next to changing table
15. remove and wave over head all dirty diapers from wastebasket next to changing table
16. attempt to remove parents nose/lips/ears by biting or pulling
17. commence screaming whenever parents interfere with 1-16