Selections from a failed project, Letters to Young Mr. Simon William Cochoud, my new nephew, on this his second day on Earth.


August 7, 2006
Morning
Good morning.
I've been in a particularly foul mood lately, but there is a new Billy Joel live album I just bought, and I'm reading a Spider Robinson novel, so I may reach the ability to interact with other humans any minute now.
Album. Half the kids alive today never owned an album. You'll probably see albums, at your grandparents' house at least. But I'm pretty sure you'll never own one, or have occasion to play one. Is that how you spell it, occasion? The computer seems to think so.


I love Billy Joel's music, which will become apparent. The lyrics will pop up here from time to time, but the one that seems appropriate is,
"You can get what you want-
Or you can just get old."
-Billy Joel, "Vienna"
I'll write more. For the first time in a while, I have a lot to say.


I have to go to work soon. Again. You're going to work someday, too. Hopefully at something you don't hate. Don't make the mistake I did, of pursuing something that pays well just because it pays well. My advice would be to do something you love, then figure out who wants to pay you to do it.
Then again, my advice is not always the best. I wanted to draft Rick Mirer instead of Drew Bledsoe. I thought that Brian Rose couldn't miss. I thought that Chauncey Billups couldn't play. Stuff like that. I probably would have agreed that Pickett's Charge was a good idea.
Hard to imagine sometimes, that humans can just create life. We don't seem smart enough. Like we should have to take a test or something. Here's another good quote, from a series of books so good I get sad in the middle that they are going to end:
"Shared pain is lessened-
Shared joy is increased."
Spider Robinson, Callahan's Place series
That's a good place to stop as anywhere.



August 7, 2006
Evening
It’s time for bed. Right now I’m lying on the floor underneath your cousin Rick’s bed. Rick was the first baby your grandparents had, and he has always been the baby on this side of the family. Rick is probably going to be jealous of you for a while. Don’t worry about it. He’ll get over it. By the time you get to know Rick, he will be a teenager, so he’ll probably spend his time being mad at everyone anyway. But that will just make you all that much easier to love.
Rick is ten years old, but he still doesnt want to fall asleep by himself. I guess that’s because...well, I don’t know why it is. Really, it doesn’t matter why it is. He is what he is, and I am what I am. I am he as you are he as we are we and we are both together......
It’s also thundering outside, and I’m pretty sure Rick hates that, too. He whimpers every once in a while, but I can’t seem to convince him that the weather won’t hurt him. Someday, maybe I will have to teach you the same thing. Like I keep telling Rick, you, too, will be surrounded by adults that love you. That’s not a perfect system, but its as good as it is likely to get.