Craaaaaaazy...
This has been a very intense week. Full of all kinds of random wonderfullness, but now I'm zonked.
Random wonderfullness will do that to you.
It all began on Tuesday night, when I met one of my favorite kidlit writers in the world and stayed up way past my bedtime chatting him up. I just stumbled over him online! And he turned out to be a real live person, and a delight!!! It's very nice when famous people turn out to be real people, nice people, smart people. It's very nice when famous people deserve their fame...
So then I was exhausted when some of my favorite Iowans blew through town to make beautiful music. But I did it-- stayed up late again, and drank some boozey beverages and clapped and thought and sang along and admired... and felt a little homesick for the midwest...
And so I was two days tired when, the next morning, I got an email from All Things Considered, asking if I could do a quick edit of something I'd submitted long ago. Of course I could! And did! But then I had to scramble to find someone to stay with the kiddles while I fast ran over to the station to record. Whew! But well worth it... and the commentary paid for the babysitting, so that's nice.
But while THAT was happening, another awesome (and wildly talented) friend turned up in town, en route from here to there. So of course I had to catch up with her too (and it was lovely!) You'll know who she is in a year or two. Mark my words.
So now here I am, sitting on the couch, inside my house-o-mess, listening to the sound of Mose sleeping through the baby monitor, and Lewis wiggling on the floor at my feet, and the long-overdue laundry churning and tumbling in the kitchen.
Here I am, just staring around me, thinking about how amazing my life is. Really. It's insane.
I'm a very lucky lady. I get to have it all-- both the regular and the irregular. The random and the rote.
The rote is where I want it to be, where it should be-- in naptimes and mealtimes and snuggletimes...
And the rest....
The rest is delicious insanity. Never a dull moment. Often unwashed and broke and sleep-deprived, but spectacular all the same.
The people who tell you you'll have to grow up... are just bitter.
And the people who say that having kids will end your fun... just don't have the right stroller.
3 Comments:
Dear Ms. Synder,
I heard your piece on All Things Considered, and thought it was misguided. I certainly understand your choice to place the welfare of your child over the welfare of your dog. It would be difficult to imagine keeping a dog that posed a threat to a toddler, and I hope that your son has recovered completely.
I am also not too keen on the spectacle of a celebrity sobbing on television about what appeared to be a perfectly rational decision to place an unsuitable pet in a good home. If this were your point, I think you could have made it without the generalities regarding people's attitudes towards pets and without dismissing your dog and every other canine as "just a dog."
I think you miss the point in denigrating other people's feelings about their pets and the pets themselves simply because you had a baby. Not everyone has children or has their children around. The fact that we eat and wear animals, and in my opinion torture them so that we can achieve this goal at the lowest possible cost, has nothing to do with the way people regard their pets.
I also do not find your basic point, that people are more important than animals, very enlightening. With the exception of perhaps some of the Buddhists, I would think that most of the 6 billion people on the planet would share your view, and I would be very surprised if you could find a single person who believed that their child was less important than a cat or dog. But that doesn't mean our animal friends don't deserve our care, respect, appreciation, and even love. It seems a little sad that your love for your children has diminished your love for the rest of God’s creation.
Dear Kate,
I'm sorry if my piece upset you. I don't disagree with anything you say here. If you'd like to backchannel with me, I'll happily explain a little more clearly...
Though I will say that having kids *did* change the way I felt about animals. And that I do think there is a serious incongruity in the varying ways we think about our animals/pets/livestock. I'm not saying that people can't love animals and treat them well. I'm saying that there's a confusing element to how we, as a society, will eat a bunch of meat and then freak out about a situation like this one. It just doesnt make sense to me.
Laurel,
I've been traveling, but I just listened to your commentary on NPR and it was very well done.
I felt very differently about my dogs before having a child. It was amazing to me how like you, my view changed about pets since becoming a mom.
Anyway, you sounded terrific on the radio.
Best,
Kelli
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