Summary: When our oldest son is born, friends come to the hospital, ask to hold the baby, comment on how glad they are that Graham looks like his mother. As they are leaving, several say something like, "Don't blink, because that's how long it will be before he's off to college." At the time I thought it was a stupid comment. But they were right. My son is a lawyer working on public policy who comes to our house for dinner once a week. I find this hard to believe. I feel like he started crawling a month ago, went to kindergarten a week ago, got his driver's license a few days ago. Seems like only yesterday he was lying on the couch throwing food and making silly noises. Well, actually, that was yesterday. The great American poet Dr. Seuss writes, How did it get so late so soon, It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? It gets so late so soon. We know that life is short and yet we spend our lives as if we have nine of them to spend. We give too many of our days to not nearly enough. We act as if life is always about to begin. The real part of our life is on the way, but first we have to get past a couple of things, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid, a responsibility to take care of. Then life will begin.
