Karl Baden
1994-1996
Untitled
[The Kid]

Page layout from unpublished book
variable
 
Provided by the artist - Karl Baden
6/2/94
 
Night after night, it's the same story. I feel like I'm in a Twilight Zone episode.
 
Liz sleeps peacefully, while I toss and turn next to her, terrified she'll suddenly go into labor. I have little enough confidence in myself as a labor coach, never mind as a father.
 
I stare at the bedroom ceiling, brain spinning in a maelstrom of responsibility. I worry about dragging Liz down with me. She's the one who really needs the rest.
 
Dream I'm writing in my journal. The writing becomes an enormous wall collage, text embroidered on long ribbons. I'm looking down from the basket of a hot air balloon, ascending. People far below form a shapeless circle of dots in a distant field.
 
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These are page reproductions, excerpted from 'The Kid' an unpublished, unabashedly biased and self-involved chronicle describing how we allowed our lives to change in a way that is at once commonplace and extraordinary.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/19768