Raising a Little Boy. Today.

There's a virtual shower going on today for my friend Julie who's having a boy. And as much as I like to talk about the endless amounts of cool baby stuff that exist out there today, what I'd give her, if I could give her anything, is time and space and quiet with her new little son.

That's all. Just quiet and space. Which might as well be diamond unicorns and golden ice cream, because I don't actually know how anyone makes this type mythical "quiet" and "space" happen.

Especially with a little boy. Because with the blues, we've found, there is no slow. There is no stop.

In fact, around our house, the only way for us to even begin to have a glimpse of that quiet is to break our TV. So we did. It's "broken". As in unplugged. After an especially painful whine-fest for Wiggles, the Hurricane drove my favorite HcQ to a place we like to call "done". And even though I'm categorically against an entire family suffering for one punk's addiction, the removal of the appliance has simultaneously eliminated some very chipper Australians from our lives. Which can only be a very good thing. So. We're currently "those" people. The people without a TV. Lucky for us, everything we need is also on iTunes. And YouTube. And the Totally Rad Show.

But back to Julie.
This last weekend, another soon-to-be new mom asked me if I'd like to share any advice. Which, of course, is like asking someone if they'd like to go to Italy. And I was happy to climb aboard that train and go on and on and on and then, after about five minutes of raving about this sleep book or that bouncer thing, I thought, wait a minute, I have no idea what I'm talking about.

I know what worked for the Hurricane. And for me getting used to the Hurricane. But I have no freaking idea if any of what I found actually works for anyone else at any given time with any given kid.

So then I excused myself from my own rant and mumbled something about every child being different and the only real consistency being love and patience. Or something.

And then today I saw this speech about giving children love, education, and hope. With an emphasis on hope. And that sounds about right to me.

And although we're smack dab in the middle of political season, this isn't meant to be political, nor is hope. I believe pretty much every candidate from every party would be pro-hope. At least I would hope so. And although I'm not sure where I am politically (and don't worry, I won't talk about it here anyway), I do know...even without a TV...that in between all the rhetoric, there's a lot of interesting discussion going on. From every side. And every angle. And I'm paying attention. Plus, I found that watching this speech given yesterday at MLK's church was a really great way for me to celebrate MLK day today.

It also solidified our decision to turn off the TV. And find the space to celebrate the hope.And that's what I'd wish for any parent, uncle, friend or daughter today.