Before I lose you with a somewhat political rant, I must let you know that I experienced one of the best feelings in my life last night. No, it wasn't that.
I was sitting on the couch, and Cohen (9 months old as I type this) was on the floor. Kimberly and I were playing the "Where's Mommy?", "Where's Daddy?", "Where's C.C.?" game, which is kind of pointless now, as he has pretty much mastered it. Then, out of nowhere, he crawled up to the couch. He then pulled himself up, reached out, patted my leg, and said "Dada".
It was adorable. Nothing could have wiped the smile off my face. Of course, I thought it was a fluke, since he has lots of syllables he uses on what seems like an almost random basis (da da ma ma na na tha tha, etc.). He then got back down, crawled around for a minute, came back and did the exact same thing. After doing it a third and fourth time, I was convinced. The kid officially knows that I am dada now.
Now on to less important issues.
Barack "Foreign-Born-America-Hating-Muslim" Obama (please note the sarscam) gave his address to Congress last night. I'll tell you one thing...that guy can give one hell of a speech. In my opinion, if I believed that the words out of his mouth were true...if I believed that his plan would pan out in the fashion that he said it would, then I wouldn't even be concerned enough to write here. Truth is, I'm not really concerned anyway.
Here's the thing. I have my beliefs. You have yours. My dad and uncles have theirs (I know this because of the numerous emails they forward me...all of which I read...honest).
Congress is gonna do what they're gonna do. Will it change my life? Yeah, probably. Will it affect the way I lead my life? Probably not.
The correlation?
The correlation is this: How in the world am I going to allow myself to get all wrapped up and pissed off on a political level, when my kid knows that I'm "Dada"? It sounds silly, but indirectly, it's true. I have a kid who I love dearly. I have a niece and nephew. I will soon have more. If my kid is happy, if he's growing up and learning new things, if he turns into a decent adult one day who is self-sufficient, if I have the love of my family and friends, then why should I care about a room full of know-nothing yahoos in Washington who show their immaturity by whether or not they give a standing ovation or a hearty "harrumph" every third word of a speech?
Changes will be made in government. Some of them I will agree with. Others I will not agree with. The long and the short of it all, though is that I have more important things in my life to care about than politics in general. The government has been screwing people out of their money before I came into this world, and they'll be screwing people out of their money after I leave. As long as my wife and I can still bring home enough to give our family a comfortable life, I don't care anymore.
I'm sure that my taxes one day will jump to 30% of my total income (they probably already have). I'm sure one day it'll reach 40%. One day, it may be 50%, who knows? Point is, I am pretty much powerless to do anything about it, and there's no use stressing about something I cannot change. All of my immediate elected representatives already agree with me.
So that's that. I may still follow what goes on in our federal government. It's nice to be in the know, you know? I will still need to make informed decisions when I vote. I will not, however, get bent out of shape over anything. Call me apathetic if you want...I just have better things to do.
Eeeeeeee!!! That's so exciting about Cohen! In Kimberly's words..."He's so advanced."
ReplyDeleteOk, so maybe it is or isn't advanced for a kid to do that at 9 months, but I'm sure it was a wonderful feeling nonetheless. I can't wait to experience that!
I don't know if it is or not. All I know is that it was the highlight of my month.
ReplyDeletevery well said--and puts things into perspective!
ReplyDelete(and i'm glad to know someone reads those emails... they somehow make their way straight to my trash before being opened.)
I am now over 2 months politically sober... seriously, i came to the same realization and I had to take a break from all the mumbo jumbo. Nothing changes, the parties switch back and forth but it is all the same crap. I feel I have added years to my life =)
ReplyDeleteThat is awesome about Cohen!! Reese says every word EXCEPT for mama, seriously, I think he is doing it on purpose...
I'm completely with you. I spent my late teens/early twenties completely wrapped up politics and constantly parroting everything I heard on talk radio. Then I guess I...grew up. Marriage and kids really made me re-evaluate my priorities.
ReplyDeleteBackyard hide-and-seek and baby doll bedtime are of greater importance than my interest in politics by a whole order of magnitude. In fact, nothing makes my eyes roll more than the current trend of "My political team is better than your political team" mentality that seems to dominate political discourse in this country.
The political die hards may call you apathetic. I call it being realistic.
Be proud of that boy--you should! I hope he doesn't blame you when HE can't bring home enough money to enjoy his adult life because his taxes are so high because of what was done at this point in his life. We're all sick of hearing about political crap. It's just that whoever quits listening or doing anything about it because they're sick of it are the ones that are going to lose. They lose for themselves, their children (like Cohen), grandchildren and God know who else. I would argue that's being apathetic....but that's just me....and maybe the 2 million who made it to march on DC on 9/12.
ReplyDeleteWho the crap is leaving anonymous comments? Lame-o.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, but it's cool and mysterious. However, to answer the unknown soldier, if I have you and the 2 million who made it to the march on CD on 9/12 fighting for me, then things may not be so bad after all. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeletePolitical urgings come and go. You'll know when it's right and necessary to get engaged.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is absolutely the cutest grandbaby of all time... at least until Shaunna's baby is born. Then I'll have to be unbiased.