Alcina Mae
Rob Finch, staffer at the Oregonian just had a daughter. I found his words very compelling. Congrats Rob.
7 weeks before she was scheduled for arrival, our daughter made a grand entrance. [...] Everyone told me that becoming a parent would change my life. Honestly I did believe them. But, I had no idea what exactly that meant.
My world shuttered. My mind, previously a swirling chaotic train-wreck, found a focus in the matter of seconds. In an instant, a missing part of me woke from dormancy. There was Immediacy. Clarity. Panic. Love like I have never felt.
What words do I impart to a baby girl born into this world, this family, this time in history – when everything around her brilliant shining self is going down the tubes? It will take a much smarter and more eloquent person than I to find them. Whatever words I do have seem overused, over emotional and altogether dumb. Yet, I am on a quest for them. Not that they will help, but because in the brief passage of time since her surprise birth I have recommitted myself to doing my best as a husband, a journalist and certainly as a father.