I don’t think I recognized humility until I became a father. I was forty years old when George was born. That was the day when I finally became a man.
We were invited to a wedding when George was about six months old. The wedding invitation said that children were invited. This was the first and only wedding that I brought a diaper bag.
I didn’t know many people at the wedding so George was a great excuse to be anti social.
I gave George a bottle when we were at the church. After he finished it off I burped him before he got fussy during the ceremony. He burped fairly easy and moments later left spit up on the lapel of my suit.
Here I am sitting in a church at a wedding for people I barely know. My baby boy just left smelly formula phlegm on my suit and I couldn’t reach a wipe.
This is where the definition of humility comes into play.
For the rest of the evening I had a crusty white spot on my suit. When I had conversations with people their eyes would gravitate to my lapel. George’s mom let me know several times during the evening that I needed to get that suit to the cleaners immediately.
I didn’t care!
That blob of spit up was my badge of honor. It was a mark of humility that I wore proudly. This showed the world that I was a dad. I handled that baby barf like a champion and left that wedding a better man.
I look back at the day George was born. The first moment that I held him in my arms. I can hear Kate Bush singing “This Woman’s Work.” That was the day fatherhood humbled me.
I couldn’t tell you the names of the bride and her husband from that wedding. They could walk by me on the street and I wouldn’t recognize them.
They might recognize me as Terri’s ex husband, the guy who had white crap on his suit at their wedding.
I give two shits….
Though I would like to tell them that their wedding day was a lesson in humility for me.
The NCAA has it’s Sweet Sixteen. Brackets are in shambles…
We are on the downslope to April. Spring breaks are starting up and summer will be here before we know it.
Buckle up Chalkheads, Spring has Sprung!
