From: Jojo 
Subject: Babies
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 18:37:59 -0800

I was at my lover's families house some time ago, where his 
neice's daughter's baby was presented (got that?). Somehow 
everyone had to pass around the baby, but I managed to avoid it. 
Later, the baby was upstairs, and started crying. I went 
upstairs to see her, and then hummed Brahms lullaby to it, I 
though undetected. I went back downstairs and everyone was very 
silent. Later, I held the baby while the father ate his dinner. 
The baby became quite silent in my arms, as I gently rocked and 
bounced it, and then it started snoring gently. One of the women 
present looked very cross, and then stated that it was the first
time she felt sorry that I was gay, because I would never have 
children and I was so absolutely at ease and made them 
comfortable. It reminded me of "Bridges of Madison County", 
where Meryl points out to Clint that if they ran off and lived 
together, it would immediately change the flavor of their 
relationship so that it wasn't so erotic, carefree, and 
love-ful. The child in my arms I was patient with because I knew 
that when I got tired of it, I would promptly hand it back to 
the father and be done with it.

It was somehow charming to be felt sorry for in exactly that 
way, though I'm very negative about small children in general...