It was April, early fall in the Southern Hemisphere, Due to stupid commitments back in Boston, we only had When we separated from our boys’ mother, the Peruvian Now, twenty years later, the older one feels alienated Also notable, although perhaps understandable after That morning in Lima, foggy and cool. but with a breeze We took a cab down to the water, along a winding shore-front road that The stone-strewn beachfront was even narrower than usual, as it appeared Out there on the rocky promontory, looking back at the After we put out our smokes and lay back on large twin boulders, watching We were stunned. We were staggered. We felt the We aren’t nearly ready to be a grandfather! So far, we have Still, despite the blow to our self-image, like a true, caring parent Well, it was the first thing that come into our head. Joe The world was really spinning, now. We had never Now, two months later and 8000 miles away, we are finally Stay tuned for the spectacular, official Grand Opening Plan a visit, see for yourselves. You won’t be disappointed.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes events occur In the life of a Blogger which take some time to get a handle on, resulting in a considerable lag between the event and the posting. Of course, the Dowbrigade, with his tenuous grasp on objective time, … Continue reading ![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/indianajoe.jpg\")
Sometimes
\n events occur In the life of a Blogger which take some time to get a handle
\n on, resulting in a considerable lag between the event
\n and the posting. Of course, the Dowbrigade, with his tenuous grasp on
\n objective time, is as likely to be posting things that happened thirty
\n years ago as things that happened today. However, today we would like
\n to write about a moment in time that rocked our world, and that we are
\n still trying to incorporate into our world view. It happened during our
\n last visit with our eldest
\n son<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n and the mists had started to roll in from the Pacific and blanket the
\n arid beaches and
\n ridges around
\n the
\n megalopolis
\n Lima, Peru. We had arrived the night before, after a rewarding
\n two weeks in Ecuador, spending time on the beach and on the tennis court,
\n and doing just enough "consulting" to justify the time and feel professionally
\n validated. We are also feathering our nest for an eventual retirement
\n relocation, although we know we will never really retire from at least
\n two of our full-time jobs.<\/p>\n
\n time to tack on 4 days in Peru, and we didn’t want to spend two of those
\n days
\n in the spectacular although exhausting bus trip up from sea level, through
\n a frigid, foggy pass two-and-a-half miles high between two mountain ranges,
\n and down into the lush world of the Callejon de Huaylas, and the Eco-Tourism
\n Hotel<\/a> our son had built along a trout stream. Accordingly, our son had agreed to meet
\n us in Lima, the teeming capital and outpost of Globalization, a city
\n neither of us particular enjoyed. But the important thing was
\n spending time together, and like any big, capital city there was a lot
\n going on in Lima, so although our heart was high in the Andes, we we
\n were looking forward to catching up with Joe.<\/p>\n
\n Princess, our older son was five and stayed with the Dowbrigade in Cambridge. His
\n little brother was two, and stayed with his Mom, knocking around four
\n countries and a variety of living situations until he also came to live
\n full-time with his Dad three years later.<\/p>\n
\n in the US, and has settled into the same little Andean town his father
\n fell in love
\n with before he was born, surrounded by Indians and the most awesome
\n exhibition of nature’s glory we know. Our younger son, a self-identified
\n Libertarian, eschews the third world, loves Bill O’Reilly, worries about
\n illegal aliens invading the US, votes Republican and wants to purchase
\n an AK47. Go figure.<\/p>\n
\n watching their dear old Dad struggle from paycheck to paycheck for 20
\n years, is the almost
\n complete lack of interest in academics shown by either of them. We got
\n them both through high school, but they seemed to have neither interest
\n nor aptitude for the bookish pursuits of their father. Generational commentary
\n on our career choice?<\/p>\n
\n that promised to blow off the fog by mid-morning, father and son decided to go down
\n to a rocky
\n breakwater near our San Miguel hotel for a smoke and a talk.<\/p>\n
\n snaked down at various points along
\n the coast from the mesa on which the city sits. The spot where we got out of the cab, in front of the breakwater, was
\n almost abandoned; the rocky, narrow shore making for poor sunbathing
\n or swimming. It was not a beach day, either, foggy and cool, and a weekday
\n to boot. There was hardly a person in sight, a little strange in a city
\n of five million people.<\/p>\n
\n to be nearly high tide. In
\n fact, a narrow channel of frothy water separated the beach from the breakwater,
\n which thrust its rocky proboscis 40 or 50 meters into the waves. Joe hopped,
\n skipped and jumped lightly from rick to rock, crossing the swirling surf.
\n Although generally a klutz, the Dowbrigade used to be pretty good at
\n rock-hopping. Alas, not anymore. By the time we got safely to the middle
\n of the breakwater, one of our sneakers was soaked to the sole, attached
\n to a slightly twisted ankle to boot.<\/p>\n
\n deserted beach and the modern city rising behind it full of masses of
\n people and millions
\n of memories, with our oldest son at our side, we felt at peace with with
\n world. But not for long.<\/p>\n
\n the wisps of fog blowing off towards the horizon, Joe dropped the bomb
\n he had so carefully set up, and informed us that as of this coming September
\n the Dowbrigade was going to be a grandfather.<\/p>\n
\n earth spin and were afraid for a horrible sick moment that we were going
\n to pass out.
\n Sure, we had considered the possibility in a theoretical, arms-length
\n sort of way. We realized Joe was 24 now, and in a committed relationship,
\n and that someday he would have kids. But not NOW!<\/p>\n
\n managed to ignore the increasingly insistent communiques from the American
\n Association
\n of Retired People, and to pretend that the rapidly thinning ranks
\n of the "Just Don’t Suck" tennis league are due to a coincidental rash
\n of minor injuries. Hell, inside our head we still feel like a teenager,
\n waiting until the Pees go out to have the run of the house.<\/p>\n
\n our first words were for our son and his life-altering situation. "Joey
\n my boy, now you are well and truly fucked."<\/p>\n
\n looked hurt and offended, normal we guess as we were disparaging the
\n entire
\n process which had produced his own life. We remembered back 25 years
\n when we had informed our own father that he was about join the ranks
\n of Grandparents Unlimited. We had done it by phone, from this self-same
\n city of Lima, and still remember the endless seconds of silence after
\n we dropped our <\/i>bomb. At least our son had had the decency to tell us to our face.<\/p>\n
\n suspected that the news of our impending grandfatherhood would have such
\n a powerful,
\n physical effect. Even after ten minutes of small talk congratulations
\n and backtracking from our original disparaging comment, we were unsure
\n of our ability to walk off the breakwater. We decided we had better go
\n back to the hotel to lie down for a while.<\/p>\n
\n coming to grips with the generational passing of the torch, the whole
\n concept of
\n grandfatherhood, and the eerie sense of history repeating itself in spastic
\n permutations of a twisted genetic theme. We are planning another trip to Peru
\n for Christmastime, to actually meet the little whippersnapper (and our
\n son’s significant other, who we know not yet).<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/vima.jpg\")
<\/a>And, we have finally accepted our new status enough to put it in the
\n Blog. In a weird way, more than anything else so far, that is what makes
\n it real.<\/p>\n
\n of Joe’s Hotel, the Villa
\n Maria Eco-Hostal<\/a> and web site,later this week.<\/p>\n