“High on hope, he has forgotten what he loved and, instead,
loves the ideal more than the reality, which is the cause
of all the misery that the human species creates for itself.”
Dean Koontz, Seize The Night
I’m not normally much of a person for quotes. But every now and then one will jump up out of a book and grab me. When I was reading Dean Koontz’ Seize The Night (a seriously good book, btw), the above quote struck me straight away. I remember at the time stopping for a while, and just turning around the implications of it in my mind.
Today more than at any time recently, this quote feels relevant to me. All throughout the day I’ve been tying myself in knots, wondering “What if I do that…?” “Will they…?” “But how about…?”
But then I came home, and there was Alex. He was sitting on the floor of our bedroom, with his grandma Foley’s walkman in his lap and the matching headphones in his ears. He’d fumble with the buttons of the walkman, then reach over to Abi’s hand, and make her press “Play”. Whereupon he’d get a blast of music, and start nodding his little head with a big grin.
For me, Alex is the reality. I come home every day to warm baby lovin’. And so long as I remember that, and keep his happy smile with me, all the other stuff is relegated to a status of “nice to have.”