Having a baby can really light a fire under a person.

We must fix things! Our children shouldn’t have to live in a world with blah blah blah blah blah.

Maybe I’ve got some kind of problem, but that hasn’t happened to me. It’s impossible to get emotionally invested in every ongoing calamity and future disaster, every nation imperiled by ISIS and climate change, every Mariner stranded on base.

Two sons: George and Oliver, who, I assume, will reach my current age and surpass it and every milestone along the way. Days and nights will come when they struggle in the world, alone, and pause to remember their folks, after I’m gone, after both of us are gone. That’s poignant.

I think of my folks that way, sad that Aimee and G. and O. will never know them. Maybe they’ll have grandkids who will never know them, but I remember visiting my family for Christmas, leaving them at the airport– sad scenes! Walking down the ramp onto the plane, elated to be my single solitary self again.

We took G. and O. to a local coffee shop the other day– O.’s first family walk– and got to talking about what, it seems to us, will be some of the dominant issues of life for a 21st century Seattle kid.

Changing technology. Not for me it wasn’t, but is it? Hardly a day goes by that a device doesn’t baffle me and remind me that my own software is inadequate for the challenges, tasks, and opportunities at hand for the digital native.

Safe to assume that G. and O. are going to see some crazy technology.

Changing demography. I didn’t grow up among people from every populated continent, but they will. I see people from all over the place, everywhere, every day, except maybe one place– Canada. What are they waiting for? What is their plan? When I see the Coast Guard ships and helicopters, I wonder…. Who are they looking for? Are we under threat? From where?

Canada?!?

I’ve been to Canada. Do not underestimate these people. They’re nice, but…. What if they snap?

Changing economy. Maybe Social Security isn’t going to survive much longer. As someone not far from collecting my share of that pie, I desperately hope to get that. I fully expect them to string me along and try to keep me waiting until I’m senile.

How G. and O. will be able to afford an education or a home or a weekly trip to PCC is beyond me.

Changing environment. The dry season began more than a month early this year– a MONTH. Good luck, Washington state flower, the rhododendron. Good luck, Mt. Rainier glaciers, Olympic rain forest.

Changing technology, changing demography, changing economy, changing environment, I wrote on a piece of paper.

I asked Aimee, how do you cut those 8 words in half? “Cross out ‘changing,'” she said.

Or, how do you reduce those 8 words by about 85%? Change “changing” to “change.”

The same things that have always been changing.