THE NEW GUY

Well, it's my fourth time as grandpa, but the first when the baby has been close enough to see and hold on his first day of life. It's an amazing experience. Holding little Luca, old softie that I am, I cried. He was scarcely a few hours old.

Here's this awesome, tiny, living, breathing human being, his head barely yet the size of my fist, his skin so soft to the touch it takes your breath away, intelligence already shining in his eyes, his face, his little hands as he begins to explore this strange new world he's just arrived in. Watching him, I was astonished to see him already learning. That infinitely complex piece of organic engineering inside his head was already busy registering facts and feelings, tastes and smells and touch, attempting to put together a coherent picture of the world outside the womb. I was surprised, too, by his engagement--the squeeze of a finger, the meeting of the eye. And by the immediate, spontaneous bonding, the beginnings of relationship with Mom, with Dad and even--am I just being fanciful?--with Granddad and Grandmom.

Thanks, Luca, for inspiring me to try looking at the world through your eyes, the eyes of a new arrival, eyes that are at once innocent and infinitely curious, seeing everything afresh, for the first time. Or at least to imagine what it might feel like to see things in this way, to take not the smallest thing for granted, to ask everything to make itself known to me. May you continue to be as curious and as eager to learn as you seem to be today. May you continue to bring light and love and joy into the world, as you do today. These wishes from your old softie of a granddad, Peter.