Tuesday, October 6, 2009

By Way of Explanation


The year Max was born our local public radio station had a special poster created to commemorate their 20th year on the air. Frank and I took one look and fell in love with it. It featured a photo taken on the kind of Florida back road we loved, complete with cypress trees and spanish moss. Standing in the middle of the road, in the perfect slant of light, was a gleaming upright bass.

Max had just been born and we were full of all our hopes and dreams for his future. We pledged enough to get the poster, thinking any child of ours would surely love music and the poster would be a nice visual reminder of the part of Florida where he was born. We had the photographer sign it for us and tucked it safely away for someday in Max's future.

We have carried that poster for nine years, five moves and three states. We always meant to have it framed but we were always short on time or short on money. We mentioned it every so often to Max as he was growing up, telling him the story of how we got the poster when he was a tiny baby, knowing someday he would want it.

On Saturday Max asked about the poster and we pulled it out of a closet and put it up in his bedroom.

It was only later that night that I realized that the dream we had, of a son who would want a reminder of where he was born, who would love music as much as we did, had come true. A dream from so many years and miles and mornings and baths and dinners and bedtimes ago I had almost forgotten it was a dream and yet, there it was, the poster on the wall and sleeping beneath it in the bed, the boy we had imagined so many years ago.

5 comments:

  1. Gosh, that gave me goosebumps...

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  2. This is a lovely story. I've been looking over your blog and it seems we are on a similar path of wishing and dreaming. : )

    Oh - and I LOVE your Zora Neale Hurston quote!!!

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  3. That is really cool -- when a nice memory to help Max make. I saved a calendar from before my daughter was born -- it's from a Japanese grocery store and had cool art. She's year of the rabbit and that was one of the pix? Anyway -- you've inspired me to dig it out of the closet.

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  4. Well, I consider it a very good day when I can inspire you!

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