Second birthday

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2nd birthday Photo album


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Ulysses turned two today. He doesn't know about birthdays -- not as far as we know -- but he has been carrying around a tiny little board book called "The Birthday" for several days. One of his favorite pictures is a closeup of the birthday cake.

U napped (conveniently and miraculously) while Don's mother decked out the dining nook in all the birthday trimmings we bought at the party store yesterday. Ulysses woke up in a good mood and tottered to the decorated room. He spied the balloons hanging from the overhead lamp, the colorful tablecloth, the cake. He gradually saw that the whole area was done up special, and as his awareness of it grew, his eyes began to shine, his face to light up with the marvel of it.

Then Don and Amma and I told him, "Happy birthday! This is for you! Happy birthday, Ulysses!" He looked at us and looked around at the decor and at the cake glowing with little flames. His face was radiant. My heart nearly burst to see him so happy. I understood then what drives parents to get things for their children, to buy presents and take them to Disneyworld: it was to see this look. This look of innocent, un-selfreflective, unfiltered, un-mediated rapture. Untempered joy. Naive in the strict sense. A gaze with no irony, no expectation. A pure present-moment experience. Satori without the threat of boredom.