21 DAYS OLD AND FLIRTING

BAPTISM DAY 

Hey, we should not be on this page yet because the birthday celebration for this devil is still more than two months away.  But as I was doing some organizing to my work station today, I came across this photo and the series in which it has been spending the last 33 years and I could not help but to be driven to say something about it.
I know that this particular person was between two and one half to three and one half weeks old when this was taken.  I know that it was his Baptismal day because of the series and the people pictured at the time of the event.  What attracted me were the eyes.  They are still today what they were then.  This brought a couple things to mind, three actually.
My maternal grandfather always said that if you look into a person's eyes with enough caring and perception, you'll never dis-recognize that individual.  I think my grandfather was right.  For years my picture was on the mantle piece of our home.  Just about everyone who looked at the picture mistook it to be our first born son.  The very few who guessed (KNEW?) that it represented me admitted that it was in the eyes.  They had to be right.  I never had soft, bedroom, flirty eyes like this guy does.  Just ask his wife...or his mother.
In this picture I know that the baby is looking at his grandmother who had just turned away to go into another part of the house.  The baby didn't want to leave her go even though the person at his feet is his mother.  On this day, his grandmother, MJT Dion, was pampering him beyond all boundaries.  Who would want to give up that kind of attention?  Not this guy, for sure.  What is rather challenging to my understanding is the connection between the age of the person and the ability to cling to something or someone to the degree of happiness that is evident here. Hmmm.
Finally, the most poignant thought of the series is the one about the recognition of Nazi war criminals by survivors after decades of separation.  I have quite often asked myself how that could be so verifiable.  I think today I got a piece of my answer.  It must have been the eyes.  After such horror and cruelty, it must be impossible for the victims to forget the perpetrators.  The final human, emotional clue must be in the eyes.  There must be something in the eyes of a deviant human being [as for a righteous one] that can never change.  Those who have lived the closest to that individual must never be able to forget.  Ever.
Fourth and finally, I have to ask a question, rather than to state a fixed thought: Having said all that, what do I answer to myself when I consider the stories of the victims of child molesters? the victims of abusers of old and declining parents? the victims of incompetent and psychologically abusing teachers?  I suppose that there are more questions of this nature that could be asked.  The one I think of most in this regard is how a parent could recognize a child that had been swept overboard at sea and had vanished, presumed to be dead?
OK.  Enough of that.  Just relax and enjoy the mystery.  Don't spend too much time looking at those eyes above.  Trust me, you'll grow to regret it because they can steal your mind and your heart.