On Knowing Your Child

A friend once said to me that there is no automatic love when your child is born.  They are, after all, strangers.  

My relationship with Alan has taken time to develop, and as his father I understand that when it comes to bonding I come second in line to Mom.  But about a week ago we had a breakthrough.  As some of you know, I like Phish....the band.  A more true statement would be I loved Phish and spent a great deal of my 20's seeing them live and listening to them in the comfort of my car an/or home.  But last week, Alan and I were wining down the day and I had him tightly swaddled and we were bouncing away on our exercise ball when a Phish tune came over the iPod, "Stash" to be specific.  (A side note: this particular version of "Stash" has what Rolling Stone Magazine considers to be one of the Top 100 guitar solos of all time and is found on the album "A Live One"). 

 

As the song wore on, Alan began to drift away to sleep.  Its hard to describe my feelings about the situation but I'm sure parents have these moments, just not with Phish.  I got the usual chills when the guitar would reach those great heights and with my son's warm, tired body against me I just melted.  I had that 'wow' moment that I'll always remember.  I met my son that day, all thanks to my old friends Phish.