AND THE WATER

Dear Spike:

Tomorrow we'll head to Los Angeles to visit some of our family and play bit at the beach. It's been over a year since we took you to the ocean — and you were asleep that time — so this might as well be your first experience seeing the Pacific.

I love the ocean. In school, you'll learn there are several — the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian and the Arctic — but if you think about it, it's really just one big body of water, every drop in motion from one place to the next. And in that way, it connects us all. The water that washes over your sand-covered feet in Los Angeles once passed under the great sailing vessels of the Mediterranean Sea. And the water that passed under those ships once splashed against the Great Barrier Reef near Australia.

On to the great Maverick waves of Hawaii. On to the angry tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico. Onto the lazy currents of the Bosphorus River, where east meets west on the 28 percent of the surface of our earth that we call terra firma.

Half of the air we breath is produced by tiny phytoplankton that ride the currents on the surface of the seas. So even when you live far away from the shores, as we do, you are still connected, with every breath, in and out and in and out.

But it is when you can smell the salt air, I think, that you will know it best: The ocean is a special place — every molecule is as vital to our existence as the tiny electrons spinning 'round in our minds. She is our mother. And we must take good care of her.

Love,
dad

JUST THE STUFF

Dear Spike:

You will never need clothing again — or not until you're four or five, at least.

Our good friends Scott and Lesli called yesterday to say they had some clothes for you. This was exciting. A good portion of your wardrobe already comes from their beautiful daughter, Zoe, who is growing like one of those little sponge dinosaurs and has recently busted out of another set of clothing.

We knew we'd be getting some good stuff — all of Zoe's clothes are super cute — but we really had no idea that we'd be leaving with an entire truckload of baby gear.

No, really, it was quite literally a truckload.

Here's the deal: Scott and Lesli have multiple friends and relatives with little girls, just a bit older than Zoe, who handed stuff down to them. Add that stuff to all the other stuff that Zoe has accumulated from grandparents, other relatives and friends and you've pretty much won the baby hand-me-down sweepstakes.

Pajamas. Onesies. Boots. Sandals. Socks. Hats. Little baby bloomers. There's enough to fill your dresser drawers and then some — and that's just the stuff that will fit you now. There are five or six big bags and several large boxes of OTHER stuff in the basement just waiting for you to grow into.

I know you won't always want to exclusively be wearing hand-me-downs, but I do hope you never grow to think of used clothing as somehow below your dignity, as some folks seem to. One of the very great things we can do for this planet and for one another is use stuff until it’s so worn out that it simply cannot be used anymore. That goes for clothes, but it also goes for cars, computers, toys, TVs and pretty much everything else that we own.

Just because we've been blessed with the ability to replace old stuff with new, doesn't mean we need to. And we can do a lot for our world by simply sharing with our friends and neighbors, as our friends have done for us and we, in turn, will do for others.

You're going to look simply dashing in your new wardrobe.

Love,
dad

TO MAKE FOOTPRINTS

Dear Spike:

The mattresses for your crib and cradle came this afternoon. Then, this evening, your mother found an advertisement online for a changing table — for just $19.

We didn’t set out to make you an Earth-friendly baby, but that’s pretty much how things have turned out. The mattresses, provided by your Aunt Kelly, are made from organic cotton. The paint we used for your walls is nontoxic, organic and lead free (heck, you could probably drink the stuff.) Your mom made you drapes from a set of organic beechwood fiber sheets. Your crib is a hand-me-down from our friends Brent and Rebecca. The dresser and desk are both old items we’ve had around for years. And our “new” changing table has been used by at least one other family — and possibly several.

We’re not psychotic about it, but I like to think that our family is environmentally aware. We do our best to recycle, we’ve worked hard to make our home as energy efficient as possible, we xeriscape, we drive cars with low emissions and good gas milage.

But we still have to think about most of this stuff.

I like to believe you won’t have to. By the time your footprints are big enough to make footprints, “living green,” may be no more than an afterthought.

In the meantime, we’ll try to make decisions on your behalf that are both healthy for you and for our Earth.

Love,
dad