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the door opens....

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2009.02.25

We've entered another phase in Ken's life. He can now open doors. I can foresee that we're going to have to start getting those baby-baffling things for the doorknobs, making it just that much harder to get around our own apartment.

It reminds me of the time, only eight months ago or so, when he began to roll over. That was the first step, so to speak, in mobility, and it meant that we could no longer leave things in his immediate surrounds. We also had to start covering the wall sockets and so on.

Then there was the standing. When he began to stand, it became necessary to remove everything from horizontal surfaces lower than 75cm. We're now up to about a meter, and it seems that we're going to have to further retreat.

Which is fine, really. Because it shows that he's continuing to grow and develop. In these cases I can't help but think of the children we saw in the hospital ward when Ken was in for surgery. I've mentioned this before, but it's stayed with me. Those kids weren't going to leave the hospital setting, and every day was suffering.

Not so our son, and I'm very glad. And very thankful to my wife for all of her diligence in raising him.

rand()m quote

Society is indeed a contract... [the state] is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.

—Edmund Burke