I don’t know what it’s like to take care of a baby, but I imagine one of the joys of it is that it’s not as complicated as taking care of a teenager.  I mean it’s hard to necessarily know what a baby wants or needs because they can’t verbalize it.  Though, at the same time, their needs are very distilled.  Eat, drink, laugh, cry, poop, pee, sleep, get sick, get better.  With a teenager, the needs increase exponentially.

That’s what was on my mind Sunday when I spent the day with mom.  As she get sicker, there is an easiness to it because her needs are very distilled.  Eat, drink, laugh, sing, poop, pee, sleep, get sick, manage being sick.  And there is some comfort in that.  She is less verbal.  She parrots more than she initiates so it’s difficult to really know what’s wrong or what she’s thinking.  There is a relationship complexity that was lost and mourned, and it has been replaced with simplicity.  We do less, but we need less.