Ten Tiny Toes: the board book

I'm going to make this a long entry, so bear with me.

The board book version of Ten Tiny Toes came out this week. I'm happy.

It will probably always be the book that means the most to me, because it's about watching Samuel and Ethan grow up. That has been the best thing about my life. I would have a hard time coming up with a #2.

We watch life go by so quickly--crap, am I really 55? Nothing has changed me like fatherhood. Nothing has made me take a deep breath and feel not so frightened by growing old and dying. When you become a parent you're no longer the center of the universe.

That's very freeing.

Did you know that the water we drink is the same water that the dinosaurs drank? It's just been recycled from generation to generation. I think love is like that. You don't own it, you don't use it up. You just let it flow through you and pass it down from one generation to the next, and it keeps the world spinning.

Many things in my life have changed since I wrote this book.

My conception of love hasn't changed.

We all grow old and die. That's life on Planet Earth. If we're really, really lucky, we receive love from those who raised us, and we pass love along to those we raise. All of our angst and self-absorption over personal accomplishments, wealth, or eternal youth are just rearranging deck chairs. It's not really about us at all. We're just the conduits for DNA and love.

That's the moral of Ten Tiny Toes.