MARMELODIAN: Blog/Diary

When Babies Get Old

My big, black, hairy baby Sweetie is getting old. She can't walk very far any more. Both last night and this morning, she let me know that she was tired and had had enough. My baby weighs about 80 pounds so it's not really feasible to encourage her to walk further. And besides, I know she's tired and doing the best she can. If she could walk further, she would. She tries really hard to please her Mommy.

It's a conundrum and an oxymoron: how is it possible that a baby can simultaneously be old? Well, Sweetie's an old dog (if one dog year is equivalent to seven people years, then that would make Sweetie about 67, multiplying nine and a half times seven.) And yet, as everyone knows who has had a dog, even a very smart and mature dog is, in many ways, a baby.  Sweetie is completely dependent on me for EVERYTHING: water, food, and especially, emotional support....she follows me like a shadow in this house.

A couple of days ago, my younger son Walker was sick with a stomach flu. I ran down to the neighborhood grocery store to pick up some ginger ale. I said to the cashier, "I have a sick baby at home. Well, actually, my baby is sixteen, but he's still my baby." She laughed knowingly-she's a mother too.  And just for the record, my other baby is 18.

I also am an old baby. I have only one sibling, my sister Anita, and she is six years older than I. I'm sure I was probably petted a little too much because I was the baby. In many ways, I still feel like that baby, little Martha. Yes, I've been all grown up for many years now, but the inner most kernel of who I am is still that very little girl from so long ago.

I told my son Walker once that I thought we are all like onions. Every year, we put on another thin skin that enlarges our identities, but our original core is always the center of our being and remains unchanged. I suspect that on the deepest level, we're all still very small, still babies. That would explain a lot about human behavior, from the high and mighty on down.

I have a concept album in mind, "Music for Children of All Ages." I want to make an album of music that is understood by small children, but enjoyable for persons of all ages. Like so many of my projects however, it remains half done. My attention span is infantile too, and I tend to lurch from one project to another, without getting much finished. Some of the music is original and some is traditional. I did write and record, last year, two little instrumental pieces for my own parents: "Daddy's Andy's Sweet Harmonium" and "Dancing with Mommy."

"Dancing with Mommy" is on my Music page.

Be well and good luck. Martha Maria

P.S. As always, your comments and thoughts are welcome. I actually would love to hear your stories! Comments don't show up publicly until I go in and approve them....again, I apologize for that, it's just the way Host Baby websites are set up.