Max and I did our first charity event today, a walkathon to support people living with an acquired brain injury. He rode most of the way in his stroller, but he was on the scene and a part of the action. This is the first of hopefully many volunteer and charitable activities that we’ll share. I want him to have enough familiarity with helping other people that spending time volunteering becomes a normal part of the way he sees the world. And, in the act of encouraging him, I’ll have to get off of my duff and chip in myself. I talk a big game about community involvement and generosity of spirit, so its time to back it up with action. Watch out,people in need-I’m getting into your business!
It can’t always be sunny
Explaining mortality and dealing with the death of a loved one is a situation I’d like to avoid going through with Max for as long as possible, but I know it’s entirely out of my hands. One of our close friends (and Max’s aunt by appointment) has her mother in Intensive care right now, and it will be a tense few days as she waits to see if her mom will improve.
As much as I want to shield my boy from profound sadness, I can’t isolate him away from the essential parts of human existence. Instead, I have to examine my own feelings for this wonderful woman who is perilously ill, and sort out how I’m going to deal with her loss.
Its one of the secret challenges/blessings of parenthood: you no longer have the luxury of being crippled by your own emotions. No matter how sad you are, toddlers keep toddling along, and you have to keep moving with them. In my case, this emotional immediacy has been the catalyst for a pretty significant amount of improvement in how I deal with my own feelings and my old hangups. I’m able to handle situations now that I would have gone to great lengths to avoid in the past, and I know it makes me a better parent.
Album Review: “High Violet” by The National
It took me a few listen-throughs of this album before I started to find the emotional anchor points, the ideas and images that I connected to. Every album by The National has been this way for me, and High Violet
There’s a oddness to some of the lyrical imagery that proves difficult for me to fully accept, like “It’s a terrible love and I’m walking with spiders”. I can’t understand how one would walk with spiders, or what that could mean in respect to his terrible love, so I let it pass me by. But by the third track in the album, “Afraid of Everyone” I found the hook.
Songs that bring me back to listen again and again are the ones that I can empathize with, and the line “With my kid on my shoulders I try not to hurt anyone that I like” was the empathy trigger. Every parent wants to be a good and kind role model for their child, but we’re still human and caught up in the complexities of social interaction. There’s a desperation in that line that I find compelling.
Even though there are a few examples of metaphors that don’t hit home for me (“Carried to Ohio in a swarm of bees” is another one), there’s enough emotion and storytelling in the album to bring me back for repeated listening. Sonically, the songs are well crafted and big. There is both a lush quality and a chaos, and a hint of dissonance that mirrors the unravelling in the lyrics.
Ultimately, if you already have a place in your heart for The National, this album will quickly fit in to that cubbyhole. If you’re new to the band, give the album some time to breathe and work its way into your heart. 7 out of 10.
Chris Loblaw, Author 