Wait A Minute ... That Baby's Cute

I've never been much of a baby guy. They've just never done it for me.

Of course, I loved my two babies when they were babies. But babies in general ... overrated. People always asked me, "Oh my God, Isn't this baby so cute?! Don't you just want to hold this baby?! Oh my God?!"

No, I can't say that I've really, truly wanted to hold someone elses baby. And that includes friends and family.

That is, until the other day.

I was walking out of the lobby at work and saw people crowded around this baby carrier sitting on top of a counter. Usually this is when I think to myself, smugly, "Oh boy, every baby has to be sooo damn cute, doesn't it?"

But something happened. Something unfamiliar.

I saw that baby in that little carrier, wiggling around, getting set to cry -- and I just wanted to hold it.

My heart melted. I stopped walking and just looked. Then it started to cry, and I wanted to hold it even more.

I wanted to hold that damn baby.

That would have made my day.

But it's kind of awkward to just go up and tell someone you don't know that you want to hold their baby, when most strangers are simply content to just peek in, make a few kooky noises, smile at the mom and then go about their business.

As I walked out the door, I tried to figure out what had just happened to me.

Why, all of a sudden, do I want to hold a random baby?

Then I realized what it was.

It had finally registered how much of a gift children are to the world.

Yes, even other people's children.

I watched that movie "Children Of Men" a few weeks ago, the one set in 2027 where a worldwide infertility pandemic has left the world childless for 18 years. In the film, we see that a world without children tears apart the fabric of humanity.

It was so stark and sobering, in fact, that I decided to ease my pensive mood by sneaking into the last 45 minutes of a satisfying, uplifting film I'd already seen: "Rocky Balboa."

Rocky doing that thing he does and doing it well took a little of the edge off, but "Children Of Men" never quite left me. Academically, I recognized that I left with a new appreciation of something I had always taken for granted -- the gift of new life.

But it wasn't until that little baby stopped me cold that I realized how much I actually felt it.

Maybe it has a little to do with the mindset my wife and I have that we don't really see having any more children than the two boys we have. It's just easier to take care of them, and we enjoy the freedom that comes as they grow more independent each day.

Maybe it was an anamoly, like hearing a song on the radio you always hated then listening to it and finding that you like it, only to realize later that you actually still do hate it.

Maybe I just like babies now.

Either way, that feeling of hope that washed over me was one that I want to feel every day of my life.

Hope not just for myself, but for humanity.