Katy, Cally and I had an incredible day of spring skiing at Mad River Glen ("Ski It If You Can" takes on whole different meaning this time of year). We saw lots of old friends and had a great time with Nils, Jen and their boys Willem and Shay. The boys were super charged up and Willem, at age 5, had his stuffed tiger leashed into his chest pocket for safety. Cally, as usual, was stealth in her ability to charm all the locals drinking beer on the porch, holding court from the plush confines of her car seat. A little, blond 2-year-old named Natalie was fascinated by Cally and wanted to pet her red hair. Katy and I decided to put sunscreen on her little, alabaster limbs and face to avoid burning...despite the nay sayer warnings about use of lotions etc. on babies. Unfortunately, with her beautiful red hair comes fair skin for baby Cally.
After a stop at Uncle Tom Hart's 50th birthday (with pies of all kinds and live acoustic music) we brought Cally to one of her first babysitters. Caroline, one of the student leaders I work with at UVM, was excited to sit...possibly until she realized that after 7pm, Cally would largely be sleeping.
The parental reflection for the day (on the eve of Katy's birthday) came courtesy of stand up comedian and star of the "Daily Show", Jon Stewart. Mr. Stewart's appearance at UVM has been long awaited. He is possibly the most trusted political commentator in the country amongst the college set...and proved last night he could be the funniest. As I'm not a big TV person, I've only seen his show a couple of times. I have, however, always admired his unabashed efforts to surface and lampoon political idiocy of all stripes.
The monologue that started the evening was Jon Stewart's rumination on the "groovy vibe" he got while walking around Burlington yesterday morning. He observed Burlington to be so hip, good and sustainably cool, "that even the homeless people seemed happy" (we, unfortunately, know otherwise coming off a January that never saw the temps rise above freezing). Just when he had the crowd stewing in juices of self-adoration, Stewart continued,"For a little state like VT that is so progressive and cool, how did you get a Governor who such a shit head?" The crowd went wild as he publicly skewered Jim Douglas for recently declaring his intention to veto the gay marriage bill (see post titled "Whoa Governor" for more here).
As the night wore on his topical jabs landed on the jaw of George Bush, Dick Cheney, intelligent designers, homophobes, xenophobes, war supporters, Rush Limbaugh and the like. The most impressive and encouraging part of the evening saw Stewart's tone became more serious. Here he explained his belief that one of the most potent and influential forces in the world, in his estimation, has been the positivity and energy of his children. After a momentary pang of guilt subsided (having left our child at a babysitter to see a comedian:) I was amazed to hear his parenting commentary. He described in detail how valuable the lessons are he learns from his kids," They are open,energetic, non-jaded and haven't developed the capacity for sarcasm yet," Stewart allowed. He then described how intuitive and loving his 4 year-old daughter is when he comes home from shooting the "Daily Show", saying things like, "Daddy, you must be tired from telling jokes all day. Do you want me to tell you some jokes?"
Alternately, Stewart cut to the sometime heathen and primal realities of little boys, embodied by his 3-year-old son Nate. "While my daughter, at age 4 1/2 is sensitive to my needs and willing to help people other than herself, my son is running around the house buck naked in his little cowboy hat, trying to stuff his fist in his mouth while trying to say, "look at me daddy!""
I'm not at all sure that Jon Stewart's insights into gendered intuition in little kids will have bearing in Cally's life or my relationship with her as she grows. I guess as a new dad, I appreciated him risking vulnerability and acknowledging the impact and lessons we learn from kids if we remain open to them...even though this might have seemed uncool to the largely student crowd.
Newsflash: The UVM Men's Hockey team is in the Frozen Four by beating the Air Force Academy 3-2...in a weird twist of fate, the refs realized a goal had been scored seconds earlier, while reviewing a possible penalty call in front of the net. Replay clearly showed the puck has went through and not over the net...DC here comes the Cats!
