Thursday, November 20, 2008

Jack















He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter;
Now my sworn friend, and then mine enemy;
My parasite, my soldier, statesman, all.
He makes a July's day short as December,
And with his varying childness cures in me
Thoughts that would thick my blood.

--William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's great. I hope these blogs are still around for jack to read when he is older.

Troy Camplin said...

You can always count on Shakespeare to have said exactly the right thing.

Anna said she really misses Jack, btw.

John said...

Robyn: If I'm still around when he's older, I'll be sure to read or watch The Winter's Tale with him.

Troy: Hopefully the fam will be back sooner rather than later.

I like this passage so much b/c it captures the ambivalence of the parent-child (especially father-son) relationship. I think lots of people in the Anne Geddes crowd would recoil at the thought of a child as an enemy and parasite. Luckily for us the Bard is wiser and funnier.