My good friend Dan made this statement the night my son Hazen was born and it just about made me weep.

He’s absolutely right. I now know the feeling all my friends who’ve become fathers before me would tell me about, but on a personal level it goes so far beyond that. I sit here looking at this beautiful piece of art and I can’t help but think about the fact that he’ll meet hundreds of people, experience some important events, and clearly have firm opinions about many things all before he’ll even remember any of it.

I can’t help but immediately have a new collective consciousness about me. One of empathy for any parent who’s had to experience the horror of their precious baby being hurt in any way. And upon feeling this, I also feel a sudden form of guilt for any time I’ve, in my earlier more immature days, wronged someone’s kid, not because I feel bad for the kid. He or she probably deserved it. Plus we’re all A-holes when we’re kids, but I suddenly am knowing the uncertainty it is to be someone’s parent. To be my parents.

When I first saw my boy enter this new world I was blown away first by how calm he was, but it was truly amazing and beautiful to see his big eyes scanning the room, looking at me and mom and recognizing our voice, but those eyes, oh those eyes. I’m a changed man.