Karl Baden
1994-1996
Untitled
[The Kid]

Page layout from unpublished book
variable
 
Provided by the artist - Karl Baden
10/13/93
 
Wake, aching, head pounding from lack of sleep. Is this what it's going to be like for the next twenty years? After a decade and a half of insomnia, having a kid to take care of will either solve the problem ("You'll be too tired not to sleep," say my parent friends), or turn me into a raving, drooling psychopath. I don't see as how I have much choice but to see a sleep specialist.
 
Liz tries to reassure me. "We're in this together. It won't all be your responsibility." An hour later, she's in tears. My fear is so overwhelming, she says, she's unable to tell me how frightened she is.
 
Statement
 
"Liz and I became first-time parents as we entered middle age. Our daughter was born three weeks after Liz's 39th birthday and four days short of my 42nd. Our decision to have a child was the result of four years filled with discussion, negotiation, second guessing, threat and counterthreat, outright battling and, finally, agreement. We would both take this journey, Liz reassured me; the distant glow of our destination was sunshine and not the headlight of an oncoming train.
 
These are page reproductions, excerpted from 'The Kid' an unpublished, unabashedly biased and self-involved chronicle describing how we allowed our lives to change in a way that is at once commonplace and extraordinary.
 
All text in 'The Kid' is from my journal entries. The tale is told in my voice and seen through my eyes. I make no claim to objectivity. Hope and fear go hand and hand." (Karl Baden, May 19, 2007)
 
LL/19765