"Grandchildren don't make a man feel old; it's the knowledge that he's married to a grandmother." G. Norman Collie

                        My grandchildren came as a surprise to me.  I never thought I’d have any.  The reason, which I’ll not inflict upon you, is very innocent and boring.  There’s a different bond between you and your grandchildren than the one with your children.  Usually you’re older when you have your grandchildren than your children and I think that plays a significant role.  When you have your children you’re actively creating a career – building your life.  Your grandchildren come when most of that is behind you.  I didn’t have grandchildren until I had retired so all of my life building was behind me.  Your children come when you have lots of other interests.  Your grandchildren come when you have no other interests of significance.

       Grandkids are evidence of both your mortality and your immortality.  Their youth, vigor and curiosity remind you of how much about life you take for granted.  I watched my granddaughter, who had just learned to crawl, try to pick up a spot on the carpet where a narrow sunbeam hit.  Her outreached hand often interrupted the beam and then the spot was no longer on the carpet.  She explored this phenomenon for a few minutes.   There is so much about the world we have to learn and grandkids illustrate this.  It’s refreshing.

            When my first grandchild was born, I wanted her to have a perfect life – no injuries, no illnesses, and no disappointments.  She should achieve all of her life goals.  In thinking about my attitude, I wondered if such an existence would really be a life.  Are not the lost struggles, the heartaches, an essential part of having a full life?  If it were easy to do anything would you value any accomplishment?  Part of life is having some rain so you can appreciate the sunshine.

            Grandkids also reflect your immortality.  They would not exist if you hadn’t existed.  A quarter of their DNA is yours to be passed on into the future and shape the world.  If one were to look at the population, say, six generations ago, I suspect that if one of a vast majority of that population were not to have lived, our world today would be different than we know it.  Each life is a ripple in the pool of humanity.  Each life is analogous to the butterfly in chaos theory.  The world is the sum of all of us.

            A spiritual event of enormous magnitude is to hold a descendent as an infant in your arms - your child or their child.  They’re completely helpless and their only communication is to cry.  That’s it. And yet we adults are equipped with sufficient instincts to render aid.  I hope that as I age and get to the point where all I can do is to cry, that they’ll return the favor.  Change my diaper, whatever.

            I normally carry around about 867 photos of my grandkids which I am quite willing to share with, say, people at a neighboring table in a restaurant.  However, the creation of web based social networking has allowed me to significantly increase the number of people who benefit from viewing, not mere hundreds but thousands of photos of these perfect creatures – my grandkids.

©2014 Lester C. Welch