Baby Destiny

Tony's cousin David was joking recently about having a Korean style 1st birthday ceremony for his youngest son, where parents line objects up for the baby to chose and the one they grab has special significance. As in, if the baby picks rice he will never grow hungry, or if he picks up a pencil he will be a scholar. David was thinking of lining up things like the keys to a Zamboni or a pint of whiskey.

Alice has developed a version of this ceremony of her own accord. She did this by pulling herself up to standing on the bookcase.


Once there Alice pulled down these books in this order:
1. The Simpsons and Philosophy
2. The Portable Dante
3. Derek Walcott, Collected Poems
4. Faulkner: Go Down Moses (she put Faulkner back on the shelf three times before finally dropping it).
5. Merriam Webster's, Encyclopedia of Literature
6. Sam Shepard, Seven Plays
7. Life with the Navajos in Chaco Canyon

I attribute meaning to both the order and the selection. I haven't landed on the specifics but I know it was meaningful!


Tony and I have a new rule that when Alice pulls a book off the shelves we have to read her a passage from that book. This way we will slowly get through all the books we intended to read at some point in our lives.