It's Been a While . . .

Wow, so as the title reads, it's been a while since the last post here, and I fear it's getting to be a bit of a habit. Although in my defense, my wife has recently just given birth to our second daughter, and I am exhausted! Just give me a second to dodge the incoming projectiles from mothers who rightfully didn't find that funny . . . whoa . . . oops . . . ah! Ow! Okay, that one got me!

Yes, on November 11, Becky gave birth via c-section after 27 hours of labor to a beautiful and very healthy girl who weighed in at an impressive 9lb 15oz! I've since been told that I'm going to need to stop describing any woman's weight as "impressive", even if they are only 2 and a half weeks old. Our gorgeous new little one is doing very well, as is her older sister, who is loving the heck out of having a baby sister. We were concerned as to her reception of the newest member of the household given that she doesn't speak yet and we felt limited in our ability to explain the impending situation to her. Of course it turns out, that our nervousness was all for naught and things are hunky do in the land of sibling love. There has however emerged a slight glitch in the program these past four days: glitch thy name be colic!

Colic, for those who don't know, is a fun little trick pulled on parents of newborns that results in said miniature person crying for no good reason for hours on end - usually when they should be sleeping. It's a temporary thing that typically resolves itself within three months for most and by six months for the rest! So no time at all really - just long enough to get you to right before you're about to have yourself committed! The frustrating thing is that no one actually knows why these little ones bawl, not even the little ones. There's nothing much wrong with them; maybe a little gas, maybe they just want to be held, maybe they're mad that they missed the finale of "Dancing With the Stars". Our first wasn't colicky at all. I mean sure, she had her moments of crying, but it wasn't a clockwork like thing. I have had Swiss horlogiers at my house setting their timepieces to my darling daughter's episodes. Ah well, what can you do? I've decided it's a character building thing - time to put a few more hairs on the old chest. Happily they're all sleeping now, giving me a moment or two to write this addled diatribe.

I've thought long and hard about what to write in the last while, and frankly the longer the pause, the more important the blog topic has seemed. After all, the longer my "regular" readers have to wait, the more pertinent and Earth-shaking this next entry should be, right? So much has happened on the world stage since I last wrote on this hallowed site. Barack Obama has been elected President of the United States of America in a ground breaking (and I must say prescient on my part) election result. Proposition 8 passed disappointingly in California to the detriment of many of my friends. My second daughter was born. The markets have crashed and rebounded countless times, leaving us on the brink of another unknown fiscal catastrophy. Yesterday in India, terrorists attacked many areas around Mumbai and killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 300 so far. These are all great fodder for a meaningful and influential blog entry. Do I write about the historic election that has brought America her first African-American President after 200 years? Do I write about how gay rights are important not just to the gay community, but to all of us because they involve basic human rights issues? Do I write about how cute my baby girl is - super cute by the way! Do I write about the importance of working our way out from under the economic pall we find ourselves enveloped by? Or do I write about the terrible scourge of terrorism hitting every culture around the world, and how and why addressing it is priority one?

The answer is YES! Just not right now. On the next few weeks, these are the topics I intend to blog about . . . and I promise they will be funny - sort of. There is a lot to talk about here folks, and to run them all together would do them a disservice. Drop me a line in the comment box if there is anything you want me to address in these upcoming blogs. I love discourse and I promise you I won't ignore dissenting opinions. Opposing view points are what make for strong societies as long as people discuss and debate them rationally and respectfully. As we move into the holiday season it would be great if we as citizens of this great planet could work harder to remember that, and treat not only others as you would like to be treated, but also the ideas of others as you would like yours treated.