FEBRUARY 2016 - My baby girl turned 17, and yet I was the one who received a gift—the best gift, both free and priceless.
This generation, I don’t know what they are called, post-millennials? Generation Y or Z? They socialize, communicate, date and break up, keep their diary and complete their homework on devices that keep their faces glowing eerily.
Years ago that lighting was a scene for a horror movie in Poltergeist. Today, it’s just as scary and pretty much for the same reasons. What happens if you are sucked into a white light vortex you can’t escape from? The minute-by-minute life capture that happens on Twitter, Snapchat, Vine and Instagram is not without merit. My gift arrived by Instagram in the form of a picture snapped quickly before I took off my tie and jacket following a very cool, but very long work day. My girl laid her head on my still-suited shoulder, wrinkled her nose in that way that stirs my heart, and snapped a selfie. I guess it’s a selfie. Is it a selfie when it’s more than just yourself in the picture? Dually wouldn’t work, would it? That’s the big pickup trucks with two tires on each side at the rear. Regardless of the name, there it is: Me and my girl, frozen in time, accompanied by a rhyming tribute that won’t likely land her poet laureate accolades, but with words that I wouldn’t trade for the world: He makes me smile when I’m Sad He listens to me when I’m Mad And, he makes my life pretty Rad, But most importantly, thank you for being you, Dad I don’t think she needs me to make her life “rad.” This is the girl who got the idea to stick glow-in-the-dark stars on her headliner so that she drives in the night with the faint glow of a starry sky above her regardless of the weather… This is the girl who loves bright tie-dye and kitchen-as-an-apothecary beauty products. This is the girl whose Instagram profile quote is “the hair is blonde, but the brain is not." This is the girl, who maneuvers both a stick shift and liquid eyeliner with equal aplomb. This is the girl who sculpts, paints and sketches in he own wildly creative way. This is the girl, who, when assigned to sculpt a teapot and cups for her ceramics class, made a bug-eyed face with an exposed brain for the lid and ogre-green hands for teacups. The liquid pours from his nose. She has friends who will fiercely defend her when narcissistic, self-consumed, idiot boys dare to cross the hedge of protection they have erected around her. Like the animals she'd like to foster, she is a determined and loyal friend, even when it would be easier not to be. And, she has a beautiful voice that you only hear from the shower, when she forgets she is not alone, or, when we sing together in the car to Jennifer Nettles: An' there are fancy cars an' diamond rings But you know that they don't mean a thing Well, they all add up to nothing compared to you Well, remember me in ribbons an' curls I still love you more than anything in the world Love, your baby girl That's my girl: Complicated, wonderful, whimsical, quirky, beautiful, creative and loving. Happy birthday, Autumn. You make me smile when I'm sad. You make my life pretty rad. And I am humbled and blessed to be your dad.
Comentários