Lily in the Sky with Diamonds

Lily just left the following note on my Facebook Wall:

"i just scanned through a lotta your blog posts, looking for my name. i didn't find it very many times.. i see how it is. should i be offended that you talk about BOOKS more than your own daughter?"

A few things immediately come to mind. 

1.  Apparently Lily has not leaned that "I" is always capitalized.

2. She also seems not to know that the first letter in the word beginning a sentence is also always capitalized.

(3. If Lily was a fan of e. e. cummings, then her peccadillo in this respect would be understandable, but I don't think she has ever heard of cummings.

(4. And I am not at all sure she is worse off for not having read much cummings.)) 

5. Apparently , my daughter, who lives in the same house in which I do, has forgotten about that ancient form of communication called "speaking," choosing rather to communicate via Facebook. 

6.  I cannot reconcile the fact that Lily seems to have forgotten the nature of verbal communication with the fact that Lily is without a doubt the loudest and most talkative member of the Hartley Household.

7. I find it fascinating that Lily is doing Vanity Searches on my blog.

8. I also find it fascinating that Lily is inherently narcissistic enough to think that she is a worthy subject for a blog post. 

(9. Of course, the narcissism mentioned in #8 is fully justified in Lily's case.)

10. Lily's disdain for the discussion for "BOOKS" is seriously depressing.  Seriously depressing.

11. Lily did just finish reading Faith Like Potatoes.  She loved it.  She told us all about it at dinner last night.  Lily likes inspirational stories.  Three Cups of Tea is also one of her favorites.

Ending the enumeration, I will take this opportunity to ramble on about my daughter, having been given implicit permission to do so by Lily's public complaint that I do not talk about her enough in this forum.  Those members of the human race who are not inclined to hear a father's encomium of his daughter might want to skip back to the previous entry (or if you are reading this sufficiently far into the future, to the subsequent entry) wherein a book is discussed.

Lily is sui generis.  Seriously, Janet and I have no idea how Lily happened.  She is, without exaggeration, utterly brilliant and enormously creative.  I honestly don't think I have ever met anyone that is simultaneously as intellectually and artistically endowed as Lily--it's the combination that is stunning.  She is also the most extroverted member of the family--which isn't hard since the rest of her family is highly introverted.  Watching Lily in a group of her peers is a fun sight--she is like a candle with moths hovering nearby.  Lily also has an amazing ability to work with small humans--by all accounts, she is a fantastic babysitter.  She has a strong empathetic ability, which has always kept her in tune with those around her, and I think it serves her well in babysitting.

In short, Lily has a set of talents and the personality to go far.  The sad thing about Lily is that she doesn't really know just how special she is.  I cannot understand how someone as smart and talented as she is does not realize that she can do things that few other mortals could ever hope to do.  If Lily ever sets her mind to working hard at schoolwork and improving herself, Lily will do a lot of good in this world.  She is going to be a great mother some day (and fortunately her own mother makes an excellent role model in this respect).  I suspect in addition to having children of her own, Lily will adopt a half-dozen kids with seriously mental handicaps; and I think she will be the best thing that could ever have happened for those kids she will one day adopt. 

Lily is also a very funny kid.  (And, believe it or not, she thinks she is funnier than I am.)  When Lily is in a good mood, she is the life of any room she is in.  (When Lily is in a bad mood, though, run away.)  She also has an odd contrarian streak, seeming to enjoy uttering outlandish statements simply because it amuses her to see people's reactions.  (Where she got that tendency is a mystery.)  She waxes poetic about the perfection of Sarah Palin.  I once told her that she was better than Sarah, but she became quite indignant, saying the nobody could ever be better than Sarah Palin. 

Lily also manages the oftentimes difficult trick of being popular and an outspoken Christian.  There is a strong moral center in Lily, which will obviously also serve her well in life 

In sum, Lily is a pretty amazing kid.  Someday, she will look at this blog again and see this post and she will probably be annoyed that I wrote all that stuff about her, but she asked me to write about her--in public no less--so when she gets embarrassed, it's her own fault. 

Oh, and Lily likes the Beatles, so that is another really good thing about her.  She also likes lots of hack, horrible artists, but she does like the Beatles which covers a multitude of sins against musical taste.