Labor is a shadowy figure. For months, it peers in your windows at night. It hides under your bed and in the closet. It’s faceless and unknowable. At times your imagination gets the best of you and your fictitious labor suddenly becomes some torturous scene from the movie Saw. And I’m just a guy. I’m not doing the heavy lifting. I can’t imagine the kinds of horrors women dream up.
There’s often sentiment best expressed through art. The experience of parenting is no exception. History is rich with artists voicing the vast gamut of emotions that come with raising a child. We can turn to these works as companions in our own life. They speak to us like mentors, comfort us like friends.
As B and I prepare to navigate through parenthood, I’ve accumulated a playlist of songs on the subject. These are songs about children, not for children (if you’re looking for a children’s playlist, google will find you thousands). Despite the list’s eclecticism in terms of musical style, I’ve seemed to stumble upon an unconscious thread of similarity: purity. Each song eludes to the hope and purity we admire in our young, perhaps because purity is synonymous with adolescence and it’s ever-fleeting as we age. In any case, these are the songs that have been rotating through my iPod in preparation of the big day.
Unless you’re one of those annoying people who’ve had their child’s name decided since they were twelve, chances are this may look familiar:
Dearest M____,
In two short months, you will enter a world four-and-a-half billion years older than you. It will be cold and bright and loud, and it will greet you with indifference.
You will share this world with over seven billion people. Those people can be cold and bright and loud, and many will also greet you with indifference.
HypeDad 