In nine years I have been graced with three children and here is what I have learned about them.
They are engines of incalculable joy and agonising despair. They are comedy machines.
Their language is their own and the order of their new halting words has never been heard before in the whole history of the world.
They are cruel, and move in herds and gaggles and mobs, and woe unto the silent one, the one who looks funny, the one who speaks awkwardly, the fat one, for she will be shouldered aside, he will never get the ball, she will never be asked to jump rope, he will not be invited to the pool party, she will weep with confusion and rage, he will lash out with sharp small fists.
Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland. His books include Thirsty for the Joy: Australian & American Voices.
Read Brain Dolye’s Blog on CathNews.com
Image: Hofman Centre blog
