Life is a Banquet : Imagining a New Decade

Sorry for my lengthy absence. I have been "indisposed" as the Victorians would say, and "havin' hard time" as Tavy says. I am so incredibly grateful to be where I am when so many of my friends have had awful years reproductively speaking, and I am trying very hard to not publicly complain more than absolutely necessary to explain my low-functioning. However, I want to celebrate the new decade and how my daughter gives me laughter and hope for the future.

20 years ago, I watched 1990 role in with my parents. I was 12, and I might have conned the tiniest sip of champagne from my mother, but more likely there was eggnog and Dick Clark, and visions of a decade where I would spring my tiny town, head to college, and Big Things. Back then, Big Things included just the idea of a boy liking me. Even, so I had plans for my future homes and names for my future children of which there would be six. Or more.

10 years ago, I celebrated the new millennium with a sleepover with my brothers, my former partner, and two of his relatives. We watched Stanley Kubrick films, and law school was still a flicker of a new dream, my relationship with my beloved mother was a little rocky, entirely due to me, and I assumed that 2010 would bring financial success, emotional independence (I envisioned a future with little familial obligations), and a future of activism and high achievement. Kids weren't in that future and neither was writing.

Today, the three most important things in my life are my daughter, my family and friends, and my writing. I am a better person than I was 10 years ago, and I say that without vanity. I have been humbled again and again by this decade, and yet, my scars are mainly superficial now. My mother is my best friend again, the old relationship is a murky bad dream, and my husband is my partner. I have enduring friendships. We are broke, yet I am blessed beyond belief, and I live every day in awe of my imaginative toddler who has no idea that today is the dawning of a new decade. The world is her oyster.

I look to her, and I see a future trend maker. She got a kitchen for Christmas, and she is not limited to a world of chicken nuggets and salad. She makes "mushroom tea" and "roast water" and "oat me dinner" and "pizza pie" and "eggnog lettuce." She is not limited to a world of shirts and pants and dresses either. If she is an example, the next decade will be one of layers of imagination--jeans and sweatshirts under powder puff nightgowns with mama's "High Hee Shoe!" and an evening bag. Or three pairs of pants topped with a silk scarf cape, glittery head band, amber necklace, and three bracelets. Nudism is also a viable option for the future.

Like the generation before her, she is not constrained by old math and stodgy grammar. Her alphabet skips from g to p, and she speaks fluent text speak--no plurals or verbs needed when shorthand will suffice. Her math goes from 1-10, sometimes 11, but six is apparently not necessary.

In her world, Pizza is something that you wait to "load" because everything good comes from the computer and "loading time" is just a part of toddler life. Cell phones are the only phone she has known, and she envisions a world where you can speak into your wallet and order things up. "Helwo? Need Money! Ride horse now!" She tells me about her dreams--that we "go store! get bananas!" and "see my best friend L!" These things happen in cars, but she dreams of a world where transport is instantaneous and she can "Get Nanny right NOW!" Purchases arrive from "De Store! In Mail!" In the next decade, we will undoubtedly find her on eB@y as she already asks to see pictures of things we have told her are coming.

In the future, she will have a "Sister Brother" just like "Baby Can" from her favorite book, but she is more interested in robotics. She tries to teach Baby Baby to walk and to say "Taaaaaaavvyyyyy" and to express emotions like "Do Wah!" I half expect her to succeed. However, due to an off-hand, ill-timed comment, she knows that there is "Baby in Mama Belly" which will need "pants and underwear" after it "sleep 2 hour! Wake up! Come out!" Her grasp of reproduction will lead to great breakthroughs by 2030 I am sure. She recommends "Olib (Olive) Oil" as a baby name of the future.

By 2020, I am sure she plans to have "reeeel horse" and to have "Nanny and Grampy sleep my bed" and to "dribe dat car" and "chop! Wif reeel knife!" and to "do work now" as she orders her life to her whims. Like me, life will surprise her, change her, and humble her, but I hope above all else that she keeps her unbelievable intelligence as she truly is our future.

Comments

So Proud to be re-instated ! great writing! I laughed and I cried. I guess we had similar ideas tonight. I made a posting too on 'our' long neglected blog : BL. Hope you read it! - PC

Posted by: pc | January 01, 2010 at 12:12 AM