The first was in the car with Natalie. I had just picked her up and we were on our way to watch the Cardinals game at Doug's house. There were going to be several people I knew, and some of their children around Natalie's age, so it was a good plan. As we were leaving the house, Nat was a bit cranky, so I turned down the CD player in the car and chatted with her for a while. That's when she started asking for ru-vick. "Daaaaaady, I want some ru-vick." She does this from time to time. She's not afraid to ask for anything, and 3-year-olds have an interesting vocabulary. It's kind of like adults singing the words to a song we can't quite make out the lyrics to, so we just sound it out.
Or maybe we just say what we want it to sound like. Like I'm sure that Nine Inch Nails song goes like this: "I got a duck shaped like a triangle...you give a toaster to Bob." Or better yet..."Like a virgin...touched for the thirty-first time!" Okay I'll stop. But it's hard to catch the meaning if that's how you hear it.
After many attemts to interpret, she finally said, "No daddy, turn the ruvick back on!".
Ah.
I get it. Turn the music back on. And then something extraordinary. She says "No, not that one". So I start skipping through the CD and she stops me at "Stay" by Oingo Boingo:
Go--Don't you go
Stay with me one more day
Stay. Stay. I wish I could sweetie. But if I do you'll lose me anyway. You need to know I'm not going anywhere. Someday you'll understand.
The second was a moment that I shared with millions of people. The Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl after winning the NFC championship today. Talk about the year of the underdog. For that matter, the decade of the underdog. The Red Sox, then the White Sox, then the Clippers making the playoffs...the list goes on. Boise State. George Mason. Utah. The list goes on. I said to myself about 15 years ago I couldn't handle the constant dissapointment of following the Cardinals. So, I said two consecutive 8 win seasons is what it would take to get me back. Well, this is season number 2 and lo and behold, they are on their way to the big one. Unreal.
Moment number 3 came as we were driving home. It was twilight and we were driving down the 51. Nat was quietly sitting in her booster seat, looking out the window at the traffic and freeway walls rushing past. She looked peaceful, content in the back of daddy's car, and probably a little tired from running around Doug's backyard and swimming with the kids.
Yeah, I said swimming. Arizona in January, gotta love it. Also gotta love pool heaters.
Anyhow, as I glanced at her, it felt like one of those moments I should be watching. So, I tilted the rear-view mirror so I could see her (I don't need to see behind me, I'm always the fastest thing on the freeway) and began absorbing what I projected she was feeling right then. There is nothing more satisfying as a parent than to watch your child when you know they are pondering things. Who knows what they actually ponder in those moments, but to see that, to feel that with them, knowing what they are doing, that they are in the act of learning...fills you with love and fear for them. Love because you feel the human connection, and you are happy that they are progressing on the human journey. That was mostly what I was feeling. But there was a small amount of fear. Fear because you know they are developing the ability to abstractly ponder the metaphysical, good and bad. And that means that someday they will have the ability, like all of us, to go to dark places with their mind.
As we pulled off the 51 and merged with the I-10, we took the carpool ramp which rises up high out of the freeway trench and provides a great view of downtown Phoenix. Right about then, as Peter Frampton was imploring his love interest to "Show me the way" on the CD player, I saw Natalie's eyes change as we came up on the ramp and she took in the view of the city. Like something I would do. And then I realized, or remembered, moments shared are greater than moments alone.
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