About two months ago, I listened to Garrison Keillor read Mark Jarman's Prayer for Our Daughters. I enjoyed it so much that I scribbled the name of the poem on the corner of the calendar in the kitchen. A few weeks later while doing dishes, I tuned into Terry Gros interviewing Tina Fey and I had a strange moment of synchonricity. I put aside the dishes, stood in the middle of the kitchen and listened to Fey read her own version of a prayer for her daughter. Both prayers so appealing in their sincerity, their humor, and their hopes that their daughters will be happy.
With those two prayers bouncing around in my head during the past few weeks, I find myself watching my own daughter more closely. Stopping to not only notice what currently interests Camille, but also wondering what will interest her in the future. Hoping that she'll eventually shed her love for those horrible plastic heels that she insisted on buying with her Hanukkah money, while also hoping she will always love libraries and books as much as she does now.
Listening to her proudly announce to classmates that she has two mothers and two fathers, but knowing that it doesn't really make sense and that it may never completely make sense. Watching her play UNO with Noah and hoping they continue to grow closer as they grow older. Tucking her into bed each night as she clutches her bunnies and praying she will always feel safe, secure, and loved (also praying we don't misplace any of the bunnies during our upcoming travels since she is insistent on packing all of three of them).
I am sure she will lose her love for those plastic heels. I will say a little prayer that she doesn't misplace her bunnies.
Love "the look". Let's see....love of fashion and books...maybe she'll be a literary fashionista! Whatever her future holds I am sure she will be wonderful and uniquely herself.
Thank you for those poems and these thoughts. Tina Fey's was laugh-out-loud funny, of course, but Mark Jarman's really resonated with me. My favorite line: "If they forget themselves, may it be in music / Or the kind of prayer that makes a garden of thinking."
I hear you on the plastic heels. Hereabouts its an awful striped skirt someone handed down to Katy, and if I let her, she'd wear it everywhere. But I bet we'll miss (maybe just a little) the plastic heels and striped skirt when they've left them behind.
1st. I love the Poetry Almanac. Love it. I make my bed to it most mornings :)
2nd. Those poems - both of them, even Tina's HILARIOUS one, made me BAWL MY EYES OUT.
Thank you.
Wow I have so mich to catch up on over here. We have been plagued with computer problems of late. She is a sunbeam that girl! And thank you so much for that Mark Jarman poem. I adore writers almanac and often find myself in tears of one kind or another when listening. And don't sweat it about those heels. :)
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