Cat's in the Cradle

In my unending education about American popular songs, I learned that the song "Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin (kind of a one-hit wonder singer) is not about a literal cat in an actual cradle, it's about the narrator's son, who he is there for the birth of, but then doesn't spend enough time with the son, always priortizing another activities like work, personal enjoyment, etc., and he promises his son that one he retires he'll spend more time with his son, but one that day arrives his son doesn't want anything to do with dad and instead spends time with his own son, but also prioritzes work and other endeavors, and the cycle continues. Sad story and a cautionary tale about not letting the days with your children go by; tomorrow will the beginning of the rest of my life with my daughter in the new life, and I'll make sure to give as much time as needed to my little cat in the cradle. When asked how I feel about becoming a dad, I usually give an enthusiastic, optimistic response, mostly because I am pretty optimistic and love the thought of having a child, but of course there's doubts about what I will be like as a dad, how much of a time commitment it is, what the future of the world is like. Am I really giving the baby a good chance at at a good life? Some of MJ's friends might disagree. Today on the local light rail I saw two grown adults arguing, both in the wrong. One wanted the other to turn her phone down so the rest of the train couldnt' hear the noise, but she asked not to be harassed and refused to turn it off. On the one hand the request wasn't unreasonable, but requestor shouldn't have such high expectations on a free local city light rail that allows anyone with a pulse to get on; it's not like he's riding first class on Amtrak or anything. On the other hand, the lady could just turn it down a little bit and try to accommodate, or move to a different seat, or explain gently why she didn't want to do that, she had a tough day, etc. Either of them could have moved to a different seat. Nope, none of them did that; both stood their ground and it became apparent they were expending more energy arguing than what it would have taken to just avoid the situation. It became an ego thing, as is often the case with any conflict between human beings. The 2 dichotomoies of life: Today my boss, a great compassionate person who often happens to be a lawyer, approved a SECOND bonus this year to me and asked if I wanted it to go to my 401K. The 401K is good for deferring taxes until later but implies I can't use the money until I'm 59.5 years old, which seemed far away before but now I realize I'm as close to age 17.5 as I am to age 59.5. That's pretty scary. Are 401K's even going to be around in 21 years? Is money going to be around? Are human beings going to be around? On a day when President Trump signed an executive order to curb states' ability to limit AI (probably because he's friends with all the top AI tech people like Jensen Huang) ensuring that humanity is one step closer to being taken over by the robots, I am increasingly anxious about the world that I'm bringing our baby into. MJ made the comparison to the Truman show when Truman finds out about the truth (spoiler alert) about the TV show that he's on and wants to go into the real world, "It's scary in the real world." The real world has so many people like the 2 people on the train, the human species is really really good in some ways but also really really bad in some ways, it's really a cat's cradle (meaning complicated world). Some might choose not to come into the world if they could. So yes, in conclusion, I am very anxious about what the rest of my life is like with baby. This is much more drastic than Day 1 of Law school or Day 1 of a new job; I can always quit either of those if I really need to. There's no quitting parenthood; it's permanent and forever, for better or worse. Everything I've experienced in life says it can be for better, leading a healthy, lucky, loving life (our baby is going to be Friday's child, who is supposed to be loving and giving)....and I for now have enough confidence that I can provide enough support for her even if it isn't. Cat's in the cradle!