I Will Say the Only Words I Know

Our daughter, Michelle, gets annoyed when I write about her, even when I write nice things like she's the world's greatest squirrel wrangler, or wranglette (I'm never sure) so I expect she'll be less than happily surprised I'm mentioning her today (I checked with her Mom on this because Adam isn't the only one whose natal anniversary goes aglimmering sometimes).

Michelle, who explains to people she has 'my father's wit and my mother's charm' has a birthday all of her own tomorrow. I cannot believe my itty-bit is an adult -from such small beginnings but she is and in hindsight, I'm thinking maybe she was born an adult intellectually and just grew into the size of one.

I can tell you we were NOT big fans of project day when one of us was enrolled in Buckingham School's Integrated Day Program. The teacher would videotape each child's presentation and the Q & A afterwards and Michelle's mother and  I would take turns sitting in stunned silence as she departed from her carefully rehearsed script and descended into participatory educational chaos. On more than one occasion, I'm pretty sure I saw  Conrad's Mister Kurtz, but it was awfully dark.

Michelle has a quiet intensity about her that can take you by surprise. She is in many respects, most especially intellectually and emotionally, a quiet riot and amazingly confident in her own judgements, actions and decisions. She may be wrong, but she is never in doubt.

She has a myriad of attributes and strengths from both the Schubert lineage as well as the Kenny clan but she is far more than the sum of her genetic inheritance or philosophic leanings and her character and intellect are very much her own. She celebrates her birthday tomorrow and you'd be well advised to join in, if you can or be prepared to explain why you didn't. And Mike, I went the entire column without mentioning the squirrels! Oh. Shi---HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
-dad