Emerson

Women are so much more elemental than men, at least the women in my life. I think they live longer because they're stronger, stronger because they're more honest, more willing to say what it is they're seeing. Not that women are without guile but even their guile is honest or more honest than a man's. And not all women, of course, but most of them, and all of them in my life.

Emerson isn't quite 2. Her parents are my son Drew and my daughter-in-law Ashley. When I look into Emerson's eyes I can see she's seeing much more than I see. She looks at me like she knows I'm seeing her this way.

She's just eaten a piece of chocolate cake. I only wish I could eat a piece of chocolate cake like Emerson, in which no division is made between the cake and the one eating the cake, in which no self-consciousness could possibly occur that could interfere with the elemental enjoyment of eating chocolate cake.

When Emerson looks at me I like to think I'm seeing her see the world go on and on like it will never end. I take a picture of her because I think it might give me the strength to see the world this way too.