Nothing Left to Prove

Funny, touching blog post, titled "An open letter to all parents from a non-parent." I opened it carefully, afraid of what I might find.

I needn't have been scared. It's fantastic.

We have nothing left to prove.

And that is such a relief.

Good reading on the night of my son's 15 month birthday.

Especially when we ate dinner like this:

A self-portrait of us, after an attempted Skype date with friends in Virginia. Chris is not featured, as he is currently quarantined in the guest room with pinkeye.

Note: the seating arrangement was at the urgent request of the baby.

Nothing left to prove.

The Opposite of Loneliness

Marina Keegan died last weekend in a car accident at the age of 22. Before she died, she penned this stunning piece about community, love, possibility, for her fellow 2012 graduating classmates.

These moments especially did funny things to my heart:

It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together. Who are on your team. When the check is paid and you stay at the table. When it’s four a.m. and no one goes to bed. That night with the guitar. That night we can’t remember. That time we did, we went, we saw, we laughed, we felt. The hats.

and

What we have to remember is that we can still do anything. We can change our minds. We can start over. Get a post-bac or try writing for the first time. The notion that it’s too late to do anything is comical. It’s hilarious. We’re graduating college. We’re so young. We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.

Rest well, Marina. With the rest of the world, I mourn the loss of the words you will not write, the possibility you no longer have.

Eric Kelly Will Teach You to Box...and Make Fun of You

You want to watch this video, I promise. Bad-ass boxing coach insults Wall Street dudes with excellent expressions. My favorite line?

You look like all the nerds just had a convention on your body. Like all the nerds of the world said you know what? I know where to go. And they chose your punk ass.

Kudos to my friends behind the video (and featured in it, poor guys) -- the ever-talented Nikolai Johnson, Ramin Hedayati, and Chris Roan. Ramikolai rides again!!

More Than Mom Enough

I would love to see a surge of mothers and fathers uniting across differences in the wake of the guilt-mongering Time Magazine cover and articles.

Divide and conquer is a classic technique. Let's not fall for it.

I started http://morethanmomenough.tumblr.com/ to collect parents stories about how they are more than enough, and how they deserve to be treated as such by our society.

Spread it far and wide, y'all.

Happy Mama's Day

From the folks over at Strong Families comes these gorgeous Mama's Day cards, featuring striking artwork of all kinds of mothers, not just the idealized ones who tend to populate the card aisles around Mother's Day. Looking at each one of these actually made me tear up a little.

You can send an e-card through their site to the mamas in your life.

My favorites: