Benediction

I don't know if the word is meaningful to me as an aetheist-Catholic*, or it's more scathing use in Lu Xun's 'Benediction', which left me a lasting impression.  However little I believe in god+, there are moments where you are blessed.  Since we have so much to complain about, I'll share one of mine.  One of them that keeps me from jumping in front of a train (the main one, my wife and child).  Be forewarned of sappiness.  You look at the world differently with a kid.

I'm waiting for the native-wife to come out of an Ueno Starbucks with our coffees, but there must be a line, because I'm spending about ten minutes keeping the kid happy by tickling him, and acting like an ass.  He's a year-and-a-half, but he belly-laughs.  He's also cute, or I should say: Japanese think he's cute because he's a fair, big-eyed, half; I think he's cute because he's mine.  A well-presented Japanese couple comes out of the same shop: she's close to forty, him more to fifty.  She's as big as the picture.  She looks down at us where I'm crouched with him and smiles, and reflexively puts her hand on her belly; he smiles at her, and puts his hand on her back to help her down the stairs.

For once, I did not feel like a Gaijin with a cute half, getting attention.  I felt their happiness at their late, unexpected, chance for a baby.

*Because like Judaism, you never really leave.
+Not at all.