Sometimes there are pictures that capture more than a moment. Some pictures capture a feeling, a state of existence, and an entire universe. This, for me, is one such picture.
Anyone who knows anything about the east coast knows this photo was taken while waiting for a subway in Manhattan.
Anyone who knows anything about power outages in the subways on rainy muggy summer days knows that the subways get very hot and uncomfortable under these circumstances.
And anyone who knows anything about having an extremely almost impossibly dense 3 1/2-year-old knows that when they fall into a dead sleep they get 50% heavier. I know, they don’t really get 50% heavier, but sometimes, at times like these, I start doubting what I know to be true of the laws of physics and I want to bet my doctorate on the fact that my kid gets 50% heavier when in a dead sleep.
I think this is my favorite picture of me as a parent to date, except for the one I can’t show you of me 10 seconds after I gave birth to Fred, lying naked on a mattress in our living room, clutching a wrinkled red screaming 7 1/2 pound ball of baby to my chest, grinning like I just ran a marathon faster than Paul Ryan.
Anyway.
This is my favorite picture because it shows exhaustion and defeat, and although it captures an improbable, muggy, painful, awkward moment, there is a hint of a smile in my face. A Mona Lisa-ish moment perhaps, where there is both fatigue, frustration, and desperation, and there is also great love and devotion and amusement too.
Kind of like life. Yes. Just like life.
