Negril Notes

Birth, Life and the Elephant in the Room

March 9, 2005

Aidan Ishaan Raman Bogan, son and heir to my brother Michael and his lovely wife Amrita.

I saw my brother only hours after the blessed event. Words cannot describe a father after the birth of a child. He is a tangle of contradictions, exploding with love, pride, satisfaction, and joy, while also imploding with decompression, relief, overwhelmth and awe. He was a wreck, it was truly a joy to see!

Listening to him go on and on was inspiring, thankfully he left out most of the actual birth details. He spoke of the stoic performance of his beloved wife during the process of labor, how she never broke character, and dealt squarely with her situation. The reverence with which he spoke of her filled the room with a warm glow, he spoke with gratefulness, a kind of, “How did I get so lucky to get to this place in my life.” I just looked on and smiled, it was obvious to everyone but him.

We spoke of all the aspects of Aidan’s new life, even how he’ll probably live to see the twenty second century, yeah, we had it all figured out. He will learn, grow, stumble, get back up and go on. With all this positive energy at his back how can he go wrong?

It makes one understand and acknowledge the presence of divinity on some unspoken level. Something that is bigger than us, yet is totally us. More totally us than we can really get our minds around. That’s why we don’t speak of it, we don’t know what “it” is, and least of all how wrap it up in words. Our religions can’t touch it, yet we all feel it, and deep in our bones we know it. It’s only in these rare moments that it bubbles up to the surface and asks us to come to terms with it.

Ganesh the Hindu Deity can be an example of this concept. He is the remover of obstacles, so remove the obstacles of jewels, the fancy hat, the clothing, the dogma, and you’re left with the Elephant in the room.

Filed under: Family