Anticipation

When contemplating whether you are hoping for a girl or a boy (as if you had any control over that issue anyway), keep in mind the wisdom of Stanley (Spencer Tracy) in "Father of the Bride."

The context: Stanley's daughter has just left for her honeymoon. Stanley sits in his post wedding-reception living room, surrounded by empty champagne glasses, plates of half eaten cake, wilting wedding flowers and ribbon streamers musing "What's it going to be like to come home and not find her. Not to hear her voice calling 'Hi Pops' as I come in."

Just as those thoughts are sinking in and revealing a deep void created by his daughter's absence, the phone rings; she is "just calling from the airport to say . . . "

Well, after talking with her, Stanley turns to his wife, smiles and says “Nothing’s really changed, has it? You know what they say: ‘My son’s my son till he gets him a wife, but my daughter’s my daughter all of her life.’ All of our life.”

Later we can ponder the merit behind Luca Brasi's wedding day wish to Don Corleone: "I am honored and grateful that you have invited me to your daughter's wedding on the wedding day of your daughter's wedding. And I hope that their first child is a masculine child." But sons are good in a different way, when they marry they become men.

©2006 David R. Childress. All Rights Reserved