Two weeks and One Year

One of my friends, who also has a blog, told me that a primary reason of his for starting such an online publication was to give himself a sense of a deadline. He said he wanted to write more often, and he felt that by starting a blog he would have readers that were expecting him to right. When he told me this, I immediately identified with the sentiment. Indeed, one of the best (and worst) things about having a blog is the belief, whether substantiated by reality or not, that there is this unknown audience hanging on your every word, checking back often to see if you've written a new post. This belief is one of the best things about a blog because it gives you pleasant delusions of grandeur that your are the next Chesterton or Belloc. This belief is one of the worst things because you quickly realize that you are not the next Chesterton or Belloc, and then you  feel like you're letting down your audience when you haven't posted in several weeks.

Thus, when I logged on today to write a new blog post, I was rather dismayed to find out that my last blog post was dated April 18th. Indeed, an overwhelming sense of despair hit me at that point, because I felt like whatever I had to write today better be good so as to appease the angry mob of readers upset over my lack of writing. However, I quickly realized there is more than one strategy for diffusing make believe angry mobs. One can either win them over with greatness so that they forgive you due to your genius, which is the hard and narrow way. Or, one can grovel, seeking pity and explaining why there has been no post for two weeks. This is the easy and broad way, and it is the one which I have chosen to follow.

So, you see distressed reader, it is not my fault. Have pity. The past two weeks have been very busy at work, and thus I have been rather distracted from this blog. It has been in the back of my mind this whole time. I have thought of you, and thought how I was neglecting you. I have tried to think of quick things I could post on this blog, but then I would get distracted by the work I had to do and I would forget to post anything. I was spending late nights and frantic days helping to plan a major event. But now that event is over, and I am back, and I hope to be more faithful to you now. (Disclaimer: The internet can often be a very poor medium for expressing sarcasm. Thus, please be assured that I do not actually believe I am at the top of your internet reading list.)

However, I do mention the hectic pace of my last two weeks as more than just an excuse to elicit pity and mercy from my readers. I also mention this busy time because it proved to be the context for a quite significant day, and quite a valuable lesson. Right in the middle of all the craziness, on Tuesday, April 24, Liz and I's first born son Alan Joseph Anderson reached the remarkable milestone of turning one year old. The day was filled with much fun, including cousins and cupcakes, and many statements to the effect of "I can't believe it's been a year." 

Now, I know that this experience of your oldest child turning one is rather common for most parents (for those who never experience this, I am truly sorry). But even though I am very used to thinking of babies turning one year old, it was quite a different experience to have mine actually do it. Don't get me wrong, the day itself was rather the same as the one before and the one after (though Alan did seem to be in a better mood because everybody was so happy to see him all day.) Rather, when your own child reaches a milestone like a birthday, it becomes a chance for reflection. It becomes a chance to refocus, to recognize how quickly the time we are given by God is going by. It helps us realize that while there might be so much that seems very important right now, there is also so much the really is important that doesn't seem so.

Indeed, in the midst of the craziness surrounding work, Alan's birthday shown as a beacon. It was a reminder of all that is good and important in life. It reminded me of my primary vocation as a husband and father, not as an employee. It gave me pause to consider my little boy, my son, and how he has grown and how he will grow. It helped me realize how much of his formation is still left to his Mother and I, an exciting and yet terrifying task. In the midst of one of the most busy weeks, my son turned one and enjoyed cupcakes with blue frosting. That occasion, that event, will stick with me longer than anything I've done or will do at work. Indeed, it is one of the great joys of fatherhood to watch your child become a year older. It is also a great joy to have such a concrete reminder that work is not everything.