Baby I'm Amazed

I put on Paul McCartney’s 1st solo record self titled “McCartney”. It was one of my favorite records when it came out. It still is. I picked this copy up a few years ago at a used record store in an attempt to replace some records which we lost in a fire. It’s scratchy and it it skips on Baby I’m Amazed. I remember that I had this strange fear that when the Beatles broke up the world we knew would cease to exist (at least musically). I grew up with The Beatles and the idea of a solo record was scary. But, everything about this record was brilliant. I thought it was so cool that Paul played all the instruments and even if it wasn’t a polished record there was something honest about the music which made me play it over and over. The cover (a still life of Maraschino cherries shot by Linda) remains ingrained in my mind even to this day. The back cover of a bearded Paul with a baby snuggled up inside his jacket was such a personal slice of family life that I never saw when he was a Beatle. Even to this day when I put my sweater or jacket around someone for warmth or go unshaven for a week I think of this image.

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Sam is in the thick of 12th grade. Taking SATs, talking to college tennis coaches, meeting deadlines and applying for colleges. The idea of him going away next year, of him going solo is just starting to permeate the house. Telling a 5 year old Simon that Sam isn’t going to be sitting next to him at the dinner table next year brings up feelings that I’ve never really had before as a father. There’s a part of me that fears the notion of Sam not being here- of cooking, cleaning, and doing the laundry all by himself. There’s also a part of me that knows that what we’ve done as parents, what he’s done and is doing will make going away, going solo amazing.

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