Saturday's Old Photo

Monday is oldest son’s birthday, so shouldn’t today’s old photo be one of him? This picture was taken sometime in the spring after he turned two.

 

He’d been crying before this photo was taken. Can you see the glisten of tears in his eyes? He hadn’t wanted to sit by himself away from the rest of his family. As long as he was close to his sister or a parent, he was a sedate child who didn’t require a lot of attention, but he did not do well off by himself until he was older.

 

He was a watcher first, and then a doer. No trial and error learning for this boy. He did a lot of sitting and watching older children play—he was not the sort of toddler who required chasing—and then one day he’d get up and do whatever it was he’d been watching the older kids do. When he was eighteen months old, he hopped on his older sister’s trike for the first time and pedaled off slowly, which was his normal speed for everything, but without any struggle to coordinate the pedaling.

 

He was never one to flit from one activity to another. The summer he was four, his goal was to catch a grasshopper. For hours at a time, for days that turned into weeks, he sneaked around the greenbelt behind our home, crouched over Hamburgler style, cupped hands turned downward and outstretched, stalking the elusive locust. He never did catch one, but t*The pursuit kept him busy for almost the whole summer.

 

He turns 28 on Monday. He still can hyperfocus when he decides he wants to accomplish something, but thankfully, his goals have changed over the years.

 

*Update: I’ve been corrected by the locust chaser himself, who says, “I’m pretty sure I caught some.” If he did, he didn’t show them to me.

Everything's Coming Up Irish: A Legend

I’m so glad other people are contributing to the Irish theme, because, although I still have a few ideas for Irish posts, my mind’s been on other things, like spring cleaning, a post on redemption that has taken way more work than I imagined, and the top secret project mentioned earlier.

So let me point you to The Upward Call, where Kim posts the story of the birth of Cú Chulainn. I love legends, but I don’t know the Irish ones, so this story is all new to me.

I hope to have the Saturday’s Old Photo post up later today; that is, if I can turn my attention to it. I’ve been sidetracked over the past couple of days by the redemption post, mainly with distilling all the material down to something that has the length and simplicity of a blog post, and juggling posts, jobs, or clovers is not one of my strengths.

Why don’t you help me out and post something Irish for the Everything’s Coming Up Irish theme? If you leave me your link in the comments or email it to me, I’ll link to it, and be forever grateful.

Everything's Coming Up Irish: Ulysses is Omnitemporal

but in a different way, says missmellifluous, who contributes to our Irish theme by posting part of an essay she wrote on aesthetics and the transcendence of time through art.

I love someone who can kill two birds with one stone.

Why don’t you contribute something to this month’s Everything’s Coming Up Irish theme? Post anything Irishish, and send me the link and I’ll link back. No blog? No problem. Put your contribution in the comments to this post and I’ll post it before the end of the month.