Babies: Masters of Networking

I don’t know what I want my son to do for a living. People, “…bet he’s hoopin’ as soon as he can dribble” but why would I force him to do that? He seems athletic but maybe y’all can chime in as to whether or not 15-month olds demonstrate anomalous athleticism this early. Right about now, as I write this, I want him to…sleep for like another two hours. I’m watchin’ this monitor and… uhhhhh…noooooo…wait…ok he’s back down. I can keep writing. He and I went to a men’s bible gathering thing this morning but they didn’t have child care so we bounced and went to Mimi’s for breakfast. He had the oatmeal, milk and wooden dinosaurs with a side of crayola. I had the banana pancakes.

I don’t know what I want my son to do for a living. The world keeps changing, updating as often as iOS you know? So now we live in a “Gig Economy,” a fancy term for HUSTLEDOM. The rule of the streets has become credible: Get in where you fit in. It’s the nomadic heritage of our ancestors following herds and water for survival. So Langston will, maybe, find his way into that nebulous one day. And of course there will still be pro sports and pro everything else.

But I don’t know what I want my son to do for a living. Strangers come up to me and say, “What a well behaved baby; he’s so content and even keeled.” But I’m like, I was content and it got me overlooked and ignored. It caused me to be prey. Uh oh! I like content but where’s the line and how do I help my son negotiate it so that he is neither a brute nor doormat? He was at a mommy and me class with his grandmother and legend has it that another child saw him playing with a toy that he himself wanted. So the boy took it from Langston and Langston responded by finding more toys like that one to take to the assailant so he could play with more of them. Hmmm!

I don’t know what I want my son to do for a living but I “sho nuff” want him to be a lot of things. And I guess I don’t want him to be a “this” or a “that.” More, I want him to be true. Much of what he is right now is plenty good. He smiles, laughs, farts and poops with regularity, hugs, kisses, observes, points to obscure things I can’t see, eats well, sings, dances, sucks from a straw, brings me a grip of books to read to him and chases the dog. He also listens when it’s time to pray instead of talking to much during prayer like I do. Are these not the rudiments of a fully alive human? Is there anything in that list which merits deletion? What would many forlorn adults give to have even three of these listed items in their natural disposition/routine/experience?

Seems like the key to “gigging” ones way through a new workplace reality is housed somewhere among the day-in-the-life of Langston stuff. It’s not what you know it’s who you know they say. But How do we come to know the ones who decide to hire or refer? We don’t all have a reserve of connections that make networking fluid. Some of us are out here with our listening, relational, intellectual, compassionate soft skills making it safe for gatekeepers to engage us. Sure maybe it’s who you know and what you know that opens a door. But before that, I think I’ll chalk up a win for babies worldwide showing us the HOW of meeting people and arresting their attention in meaningful non-parasitic ways.

Realness. Vulnerability. Affection. Humor. Fullness of Life. That’s my son. No one who actually met him ever hated him. If he could talk he’d be a gold mind runnin’ weekend seminars. And there is the handicap of him being a baby, greatest distraction ever. But still… It’s not what you know or who you know that determines whether or not we thrive and live fulfilled callings. It’s learning how to know people worth knowing as well as learning how to be known authentically.

Makes me wonder what people thought I should be…