A Little Peace and Quiet

Oh can that child make a noise. I am on a cross country flight, someplace over Over Land, you know the states  between the east coast and west coast of the United States that are best seen from 35, 000 feet I grew bored with the book I was reading,  exhausted by the article I am trying to craft and decided to nap. That is when she started to babble.  I am not an expert on early childhood development,  but she is early verbal.  There are a few short simple words mixed in with the noise that only parents and grandparents can appreciate.  She roused me from a fairly deep sleep.  Deep enough that my listening had shut down.  Of course I thought of ear plugs about 3 am when I rolled over and went back to sleep. 

There was a time when I would have been rude to the parents.  But that changed for me one day about 25 years ago.  I had a young couple with a toddler in my office trying to get some business done. The child woke from a nap and went on for what seemed like an hour.  After a couple of minutes the father said to me, " sorry we forget how disturbing that can be." He went on to explain that the child had been born profoundly ill. For months he had been to weak to cry and delayed in becoming verbal.  To them it was the sound of a healthy person,  the most glorious sound on earth.  I will nap later.