James Lileks, halfway down the page:
Gnat had her first day of kindergarten today. [There’s a pic, too–Erin ]
We waited for the bus – it was late – and the handoff was less painful than I anticipated. I’ve put her on buses before. I anticipate many mornings like this, the two of us standing outside in the drizzle of fall, the bone-cracking cold of winter, the first warm spring morning, waiting, looking up the street, chatting. She clambered up on the bus without looking back, and for that I’m glad; while this is a bittersweet transition for me, it’s all good for her, and I can only applaud and sigh with relief.
I live in Minneapolis, subscribe to the Star Tribune, and I read the BackFence and later the Bleat before I ever read any blogs. (I still remember the uneasy surprise of discovering that The Bleat was, um, a big deal in the blogosphere. Until then I thought of Lileks as this one local guy.)
One of the things about the columns and the Bleat that endeared it to me: Gnat was born the same week my first son was born. All the writing about his daughter’s milestones was especially fun for me to read, because we were going through a lot of the same things around here (minus Hello Kitty and My Little Pony; plus swords and guns and bows and arrows, and eventually, a little brother and the proliferation of the swords and guns and bows and arrows).
I know most blog-readers who read Lileks do so because of his political and social commentary, and the humor, and I do too, but the writing about his family is really my favorite part. It has always been so palpable, how much he loves his daughter’s company. And isn’t that the best part about caring for your kids? Learning to love their company—their presence as people in your life?
So it’s just a little teeny bit bittersweet for me to note the divergence of the paths of these two kids who’ve never met and probably never will.
‘Cause I didn’t put Oscar on the school bus today.
Last Thursday my family went to the State Fair, which happened to be the same day Lileks was making his Official Appearance at the Star Tribune booth. It wasn’t crowded. We stopped by. I waited my turn and introduced myself with "Hey, you’re my blogfather!"
During the short fangrrl conversation that ensued, in which I received an autographed moist towelette (the pleading of a Star Tribune Booth Staffer that he should autograph the thoughtfully provided Star Tribune Logo State Fair Maps fell on deaf ears), I said I was going to chair the blogosphere committee to convince him to homeschool Gnat. You know you want to!
She’s very social, he said.
Standard boilerplate. I don’t doubt it. Aren’t they all? All kids are social!
Anyway. I wonder what it will be like, continuing to read about Gnat’s life, as it becomes increasingly different from Oscar’s life. (More importantly for her family: as it becomes increasingly different from the life of her own home.) I suppose it will be a tiny window into one universe out of this alternate universe, the one I’ve been telling people we’ve stepped into this week. In the one we might have chosen, we do the expected instead of the unexpected. In the one we did choose, he’s saying, "MOM. Turn off the computer. I want to do my schoolwork on the couch."
Best wishes, Gnat.
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