Published on 2025-01-22, 110 words
A few days ago, my first child was born.
About a month ago, at my wife’s recommendation, I read Abraham Verghese’s 2023 novel The Covenant Of Water. In the same way that Moby Dick is a “book about everything”, The Covenant Of Water is a book about everything human.
Near the end of the story, one of Verghese’s characters reflects on his own fatherhood and acceptance at fading into the background. (In my hardcover edition, this is on page 590.)
We don’t have children to fulfill our dreams. Children allow us to let go of the dreams we were never meant to fulfill.
This is profoundingly terrifying and profoundly comforting.