Oh, Boy

Greetings, my fellow port swillers!

Ol’ Robbo had one of his patented odd dreams last night, part of which involved playing with a two or three year old son.  There was some mystery attached to the legal status of our relationship that I can’t recall.  All I remember is keeping him from falling down a flight of stairs and tossing him up and catching him.

Once in a way, one of the Gels will ask me if I ever wish I had a son.  Sensing a trap, like Admiral Akbar, I invariably reply, “If you mean do I wish you were a boy, of course not.”  As a parry, it has the advantages of being both straight to the point and perfectly true.  But to the broader question, I can also say honestly that I simply haven’t given it that much conscious thought, and I certainly have never felt anything like regret.  (I mean, would I have liked to have a son? Sure.  Do I feel there’s some kind of hole in my life because I didn’t?  Not at all.)

Granted, I was genuinely surprised when Eldest came along, simply because the progeny in my father’s family up to my generation had been overwhelmingly male and we’d more or less assumed she was going to be a boy, too.  But as time went on and the tally mounted (my brother and sister and I have seven daughters and only one son among us), I simply shrugged.  God’s will?  Roll of the dice?  Contamination of the water supply by estrogen from all that birth-control use? Who knows.  (I’ve heard that last one and put it in the same category as the one about fluoride and the Commies.)  I’ve simply found that it really doesn’t matter, after all.

I can only suppose that the kernel of the dream wandered into my subconscious braims because when we were visiting the Former Llama Military Correspondent and his family a couple weeks ago, I recall watching the LMC and his son punching each other (in play, but pretty hard) and thinking to myself, “Self, that’s something you certainly could never do with the Gels.”  Funny how these little things can stick.

I also asked myself if it might be something to do with a nascent anticipation of grandchildren, but the thought that immediately came back on that line was, “For Heaven’s sake, not yet!!”