Caleb

I would like to wax long and poetic about our experience over the last 36 hours, welcoming little Caleb into our family.

But, quite frankly, I'm too tired, so it will have to wait.

Briefly, though, born at 4:22 this morning, Caleb followed in his mother's footsteps and took his own sweet time making his way into the world. Two threats of c-section and stalling a couple of times made for a very long day and night. His mom was a real trouper. And his dad was a perfect coach. I'm so proud of both of them.

Seeing then that I can hardly put two words together in an intelligible sentence and any worthwhile prose will have to wait for another day, I will just say this.

I think I'm in love.

Thinking on Willy and his Kin

When my son, Jarom, was 7 years old, we went to see the movie "Free Willy". He loved it so much that we bought the movie. We bought shirts with Orca whales on them. He had Orca whale curtains in his bedroom. He ate, slept, breathed, and dreamed Orca whales.



My how time flies.

At any rate, at the end of the movie there was a short documentary on Orca whales with information about adopting a whale. My little son thought he would really like to adopt a whale, so we mailed off $35.00 then checked the mail every day.

Finally, it came. A huge packet arrived with information about "his" whale, including a picture of her and the exciting news that she was a new mommy whale. Her name was "Princess". She was beautiful.They were holding a contest to name her baby. Jarom named him "Cody".

...we had a small problem over a big whale...

But, in spite of all the excitement, Jarom was a little emotional over the whole thing. In fact, he was downright hysterical.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "Don't you like your whale?"

"I didn't get a whale", he said. "You told me I'd get a whale and all I got was a picture."

There are moments when you realize that there's been a misunderstanding. There are other moments when you realize there's been a BIG misunderstanding.

This was one of those times. My sweet little seven year old son thought that he was getting a whale. A REAL whale. And he was having nothing to do with any explanations about the realities of where we would keep such a thing, much less what we would feed it. I appealed to his compassionate side. A whale wouldn't be happy in Idaho. No, even a swimming pool in the back yard wouldn't be big enough.

Honestly, to this day, I think he's still upset that he didn't get a real whale.

So, all this news about Tillicum, the whale that killed his trainer this week, has made me think about how much my son loved (loves?) Orca whales. He loved everything about them. He wanted to swim with them. He wanted to go see Shamu. He wanted one to have and to hold from this day forward.

Now, we all know that the whole reason Sea World keeps whales in swimming pools in the back yard is for the money. And, we faithfully shell out the money to see a magnificent creature that, if not captive, would probably never be seen by most of us. And I can't help but think that those trainers that work with them are very much like my son. Enthralled. Mesmerized. Giddy at the thought of it all.

But, with all that said, I'm re- hearing again in my mind the conversation my son and I had years ago. I know you love Orca whales. I know you want one. It would make you happy.

But the whale wouldn't be happy.

And isn't that something to consider?