Today, besides being the memorial of
St. Clare, is my son's first birthday. He was due on August 28th (
you-know-who's feast), but decided to show up two weeks early. One year of fatherhood has taught me more, I think, than a quarter century of bachelorhood, though it's hard to explicate or even fully comprehend the ways in which it has changed me. More than anything, it has made life a heck of a lot more exciting. And amusing. A few weeks back, while my wife was visiting a friend, my son trotted unsteadily out into the middle of the living room floor, waving a spatula around erratically, grunting noisily like a pig while in the throes of a loud bowel movement, and the friend says 'You know, he looks a lot like his father.' I mean, I never got to tell stories like that before this year.