Well, THIS happened today....
That lady is Kate Middleton and she is married to the guy who has been unceremoniously cropped out of the photo to the right, Prince William. No, William is not his last name. He got the title "Prince" because he was born to two people... Oh, never mind. It's complicated and beside my point anyway.
By the time you're old enough to read this, you'll have learned my take on so-called "Royalty" which is something here in the early part of the 21st century we call a "collective delusion"by which a bunch of people get together and agree that certain people who have NOT A SINGLE SUPERIOR quality save having been born to a certain line of people who stretch back to a time when OTHER people shared a "collective delusion" about their great-great-great-great grandparents. (And if you go far enough back, you're connected to them too.) It's all kind of silly, really.
But if you're reading this, you're also old enough to realize your father is a very conflicted man.
You see, I think it is absolutely wonderful that we call this little creature Kate is holding (who appears to have at least four working fingers, but that's really all we know about him at this point) a PRINCE. We should celebrate this new birth the same way we're going to celebrate yours. (You will have fewer guys in red jackets with hats that look like fur balloons, but trust me, you won't miss 'em.)
I just wish we celebrated everyone's birth as the birth of Royalty. You are working awfully hard to grow and develop and your birth is -- and I don't want you to EVER forget this -- an absolute miracle. It's what we call an "Everyday miracle" something that happens so often we forget just how freaking incredible it is! Because it happens so often all around the world -- more often than the sun rising in the morning which is, yes, you guessed it ANOTHER everyday miracle -- we continue doing our work or the laundry and say: "Oh, yeah. Right. Another birth."
Thing is: as miraculous as the birth itself is, as incredible as you coming out of your mother (long story; we'll talk), the fact is: you -- like that tiny creature whose head we get a glimpse of in the photo above -- will embark on a journey through a lifetime.
The miracle is not any one moment, child o' mine -- it's the whole show. A collection of moments you can embrace as gift or shrug off as burden. And just as you are just one spectacular moment of my own life, you are going to have sunsets and friends and moments when you laugh and cry and start wondering WHY you are alive.
And here's the short answer to a rather complicated WHY question: Love. Your mother and I love each other -- and you wonderful baby, you, are the result of that Love. Love is the miracle. And it's not something you can explain (obviously; I'm doing a pretty lousy job): you have to live it.
You're going to meet people in your life who want to reduce this life of ours to chemicals to random acts of the universe. What I never want you to forget is that Love is behind all of it.
IF you can remember that Love is behind all this, you will understand another truly miraculous thing: the child in the photo above is just seven months older than you. He'll have plenty of nice Things, undoubtedly a pony, in all likelihood a boat, probably a jetpack. (Sorry, we'll see about a jetpack later.)
You are both royalty. You're children of a force greater than I can possibly comprehend. That kid's STUFF doesn't make his life any more miraculous than yours, which means he's no more a Prince than you are a Prince or Princess. AND (this part is the amazing part) both of you are no less of one either.
Accept this miracle and let love shine through you.
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