Monday, June 12, 2006

Nothing cheers up a baby like 19th century poetry

It seems as though Penelope has developed separation anxiety. Oh woe is me. That means the gym, my favorite place to go for an hour of girl-free television time, will be a little limited, due to Penny’s screams in the daycare area.

I’m trying to get Penny to really understand the first lines of the Ella Wheeler Wilcox poem, “Solitude.”

Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and….



(the world continues laughing, so you weep louder to get a little attention and the world stops laughing long enough to turn its gaze to you, see you weeping and resume laughing, only this time at you, so you drop your head and lower your cries to a mere whimper until the world goes back to laughing at its own thing and you realize it’s true —)

… you weep alone.


A good lesson for everyone, not just babies.

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