Jenny, my son’s partner, gave birth yesterday (July 11, 2009) to a fine baby boy, our first grandchild. What a strange yet wonderful moment this is in their lives, and in ours.
Watching while Jenny instinctively handled the baby I pondered on the connections, the timeline beyond the DNA. For the baby through my son, then me, then my own father, there is a link to the past, and a shared history and memory that stretches back for five generations, to my father’s recollections of his own grandparents. Through the baby I have a distinct, if tenuous, connection to the future, a future I will not necessarily experience but which I will remain a small part of. I am remembered therefore I was, to paraphrase Berkeley.
Our imprint on this world is but a footstep on the ebb shoreline of time: for a brief moment distinct, strong, determined, until the tide comes in. Bon chance young Leon Alex. I hope to share some of that journey with you, to teach you, to learn from you, to hand you back with regret.
That is the Grandfather Clause in this contract.
Welcome to this world, Leon Alex!
ReplyDeleteAnd warm congratulations to the parents, the grandparents, and all the extended family! You, my boy, will have a distant Danish-American-Irish cousin named Leo Rye-Kennedy, whose grandfather will always remember your grandfather's generous attention to his writings. A bond between Galway and Copenhagen!