What is the riddle of steal?

I screw up daily. And yet somehow, the most common thing I hear at work since we’ve had Aeryn is “You have a baby? You’re so collected.” Women at work who have 2, 3 or 4 kids are genuinely surprised that having Aeryn isn’t rattling me. Can’t say for sure why. Maybe it’s because not all men are the pathetic cliché’s that are used in modern commercials. Maybe it’s because I’ve been in the security industries for over a decade now, and my baby is a joy and pretty easy compared to a steady stream of negativity and emergency situations.

Changing a diaper or getting cranky baby to go to sleep is a little easier than dealing with a woman who is being stalked or an 80 year old man with a spinal injury wrapped in a broken neck.

I can be pretty grim at work, and if I didn’t have such a Christian disposition, I’m assured I would terrify far more people

But no matter what crap my job throws at me, Aeryn makes me smile.

I was holding her the other day, waiting for something or other, and I came across the seminal classic : “Conan the Barbarian”. On the screen was the genius Max von Sydow, as King Osric, who is charging Conan with getting his daughter back from James Earl Jones’ snake cult. Max von Sydow always plays it straight, and that’s what you need in movies like Conan, no winking at the camera, play it like you would Hamlet on the stage.  The King figures out that he can use Conan to get his daughter back, and says:

 

“There comes a time, thief, when the jewels cease to sparkle, when the gold loses its luster, when the throne room becomes a prison, and all that is left is a father's love for his child.”

 

Now some will roll their eyes at the mere mention of Conan or other movies that would be featured on “The Greatest Movie Ever podcast”, but be it the timing or what-not, the line really struck me. And I took a moment and thanked God that I am not putting meaningless garbage ahead of my baby girl or my wife.

I am blessed with an awesome wife and a perfect baby girl: and no stack of cash, mountain of gold or vault of jewels is going to take my eye off of them.