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A colleague's newborn son, now a few weeks old, made his first appearance at the office today. He's a beautiful child and was very quiet for most of his stay (he got a little fussy once or twice, but quieted down in short order).
I got to hold him for a little while and will now spend a brighter day as a result. Holding a baby is one of life's simplest, and yet richest, pleasures, and it's one of which I get to partake far too seldom.
I very much enjoy living in Manhattan, but one of my few complaints about my life is my limited interaction with kids. I'm hundreds of miles from my seven nieces and nephews (most of whom are no longer children) and from my one grand-nephew. I've no regrets about having moved to NYC more than two decades ago, but key among the sacrifices that accompanied that immigration was the time I would have gotten to spend with my siblings' offspring.
New York, and especially Manhattan, is Singlesville. Of course there are families -- many thousands of them -- but I feel confident in stating (though I have no actual data to back it up) that the ratio of single adults (of all ages) to married ones is higher in NYC than just about anywhere else in the United States, if not the world.
That's often a good thing. One can be, as I am, forty-something and single here and not thought an oddball or even considered an anomaly. It's nice to be in and among millions of others who have yet to stumble upon Ms. or Mr. Right. Almost no one in New York ever asks, "When are you going to settle down, anyway?"
But it'd be nice if there were more kids in the mix.
Posted by brett at 01:47 PM | TrackBack