Ode to Boy

Or, "My Son the Masterpiece" and presenting Chapter Two of the Audiobook.

Last week, Ode to Joy turned 200. This week, my son turned 27. He was born at 4am, just before the birds started singing. His dad put the cassette in the player, and the first song he heard was a very special version of “Ode to Joy.”

It was our joy, to be sure; when a new person comes out of you, the way your heart explodes with love is indescribable by anything except maybe music, music like that. And the joy he felt in meeting us was written all over his face. (Well, with a little help.)

Then the birds began to sing because it was 4am on a warm mid-May morning, but it seemed to all of us, in that awe-filled presence of a newborn, as if the world felt this big joy too.

This kid, he grew and grew, and—notwithstanding the usual growing pains—raising him was a joy. As a child he brought joy to those who recognized his special nature, and now he’s a man, and he finds joy for himself.

I was today years old, as the kids say, when I first understood the lyrics to Beethoven’s masterpiece.

In this poem by Friedrich Schiller, which he set to music, Joy is seen as a goddess whose magic reunites those ‘whom custom has divided,’ as brothers, kin, family. Joy can do this because it’s the highest emotion on the Hawkins Map of Consciousness, just below Peace and Enlightenment themselves—a beautiful dedication for a life. Donald’s greatest joys have come through his work, creating his own masterpieces.

In the years before I made this wonderful little person, now a full sized guy, I worked on developing my mother’s book, The Winning Family, which was described as “a hopeful model for breaking out of damaging patterns and shaping families characterized by joy and satisfaction, not manipulation and guilt.” Having this toolbox helped me maximize the joy in my parenting adventure. Grandma’s book—our book—makes parents feel more confident and capable.

I’m two chapters into recording the audiobook!