baby arrives and Henry Miller's Big Sur crest
Our baby arrived July 1st at 10:06pm. The delivery was an intense, fast and slightly complicated event but baby came through unphased so who cares, now? Pablo Echlin Pehadzic. I look at him constantly amazed that two little cells met and made two more cells and made two more cells and on and on until this whole creature was formed and ready to emerge.
Someone said that Dennes and I maybe waited too long to have a baby, but at the cellular level, we can't have waited too long because any other point in time would not have created little Pablo, but some other probably just-as-wondrous creature, but not Pablo. And we are rather fond of Pablo.
During the last two weeks of the pregnancy (and during my efforts to poop post-delivery) I have been re-reading "Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch" by Henry Miller -- one of his greatest books, probably indicative of the depth of tides and beauty in Big Sur -- and I feel compelled to share this passage as a new credo for life:
"If the foregoing seems too complicated, here is a simple regimen to follow: Don't overeat, don't drink too much, don't smoke too much, don't work too much, don't think too much, don't fret, don't worry, don't complain, above all don't get irritable. Don't use a car if you can walk to your destination; don't walk if you can run; don't listen to the radio or watch television; don't read newspapers, magazines, digests, stock market reports, comics, mysteries or detective stories; don't take sleeping pills or wakeup pills; don't vote, don't buy on the instalment plan, don't play cards either for recreation or to make a haul, don't invest your money, don't mortgage your home, don't get vaccinated or inoculated, don't violate fish and game laws, don't irritate your boss, don't say yes when you mean no, don't use bad language, don't be brutal to your wife or children, don't get frightened if you are over or under weight, don't sleep more than ten hours at a stretch, don't eat store bread if you can bake your own, don't work at a job you loathe, don't think the world is coming to an end because the wrong man got elected, don't believe you are insane because you find yourself in a nut house, don't do anything more than you're asked to do but do that well, don't try to help your neighbor until you've learned how to help yourself, and so on...
Simple, what?
In short, don't create aerial dinosaurs with which to frighten the field mice!"
1957
Henry Miller is my favourite genius. It is sad that he is fairly forgotten in the study of literature.
Nonetheless, I believe I have found my new philosophy of life with Dennes and Pablo.
Someone said that Dennes and I maybe waited too long to have a baby, but at the cellular level, we can't have waited too long because any other point in time would not have created little Pablo, but some other probably just-as-wondrous creature, but not Pablo. And we are rather fond of Pablo.
During the last two weeks of the pregnancy (and during my efforts to poop post-delivery) I have been re-reading "Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch" by Henry Miller -- one of his greatest books, probably indicative of the depth of tides and beauty in Big Sur -- and I feel compelled to share this passage as a new credo for life:
"If the foregoing seems too complicated, here is a simple regimen to follow: Don't overeat, don't drink too much, don't smoke too much, don't work too much, don't think too much, don't fret, don't worry, don't complain, above all don't get irritable. Don't use a car if you can walk to your destination; don't walk if you can run; don't listen to the radio or watch television; don't read newspapers, magazines, digests, stock market reports, comics, mysteries or detective stories; don't take sleeping pills or wakeup pills; don't vote, don't buy on the instalment plan, don't play cards either for recreation or to make a haul, don't invest your money, don't mortgage your home, don't get vaccinated or inoculated, don't violate fish and game laws, don't irritate your boss, don't say yes when you mean no, don't use bad language, don't be brutal to your wife or children, don't get frightened if you are over or under weight, don't sleep more than ten hours at a stretch, don't eat store bread if you can bake your own, don't work at a job you loathe, don't think the world is coming to an end because the wrong man got elected, don't believe you are insane because you find yourself in a nut house, don't do anything more than you're asked to do but do that well, don't try to help your neighbor until you've learned how to help yourself, and so on...
Simple, what?
In short, don't create aerial dinosaurs with which to frighten the field mice!"
1957
Henry Miller is my favourite genius. It is sad that he is fairly forgotten in the study of literature.
Nonetheless, I believe I have found my new philosophy of life with Dennes and Pablo.
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