The River Jordan

Abstract

Shortly after I learned that my wife Jill was pregnant with our first child, I was sharing the news with a colleague of mine many years my senior. She smiled at my enthusiasm with grandmotherly knowing and then proceeded to launch into a protracted monologue about how all of my days from this one forward would be filled with thoughts, fears, hopes, and eventually memories of this child. Another colleague came in on the tailend of the conversation and in a pithy summary said, “Yes indeed, that first child runs through you like a river.”