My phone has died, it won’t charge. One thinks about this every so often, how vulnerable everything is centralized on the little gizmo. How much information and recorded memories might be lost? My daughter went out with friend after school. Little adults. She is both a kid and a woman or testing those identities. I have friends who never had children or wanted to and are proud about that. I understand, in my 30s I wondered if I should be concerned about having had kids or not. I asked Sam Larkin one time because he was twenty years older than me and childless. “Do you ever regret that?” I asked. “My songs are my children, Bob.” I liked that answer, it made sense out of my life then but as my daughter grows up I love the unexpected things gained from fatherhood like the underground world of parks and people sharing stuff they no longer need which they want to see someone else with kids put to use. I also love the reconciliations that happen. Being a parent makes you rewind the tape and reflect differently about who was wiping your ass as an infant, who was taking your outbursts of defiance, who was supplying you with love or the lack of it. What roles did you understand as a kid that now you understand from an adult. It is a beautiful expansion of life and knowledge.

Update: Mohammed, the cell phone guy who always incorporates praising God in our exchange, saved the day. I did not lose a bunch of pictures and videos. They remain the downloadable future property of my girl.