Girls

A combination of a several events have had me really cherishing my girls lately.

My wife has been reading a historical fiction book set in 19^th century China. I haven’t read it but from what she has relayed to me the story is told from the perspective of a young girl. In China girls were pretty much expendable and they were quite literally just a target for torture. Her descriptions of the Chinese practice of foot-binding really disturbed me. The fact that 1 in 10 girls dies from infection of lost their feet just adds to the horror of this practice.

Without going into too much detail, this week has been report card and parent teacher conference week. My girls’ accomplishments have given me particular reason to be proud.

Last night when I got home from work Eve was being uncharacteristically mellow. She crawled up onto the couch and sat next to me. Soon she had fallen asleep. I could tell by how warm she was that she wasn’t feeling good. So I let her sleep on my lap for a few hours. When it cam time for bed I took her upstairs and stayed with her for a while once I’d put her to bed. Victoria came in a remarked that I was doing women’s work and that the men should not be burdened with having to help sick girls. I should send her away and let other women take care of her and if she dies she dies and that’s one less mouth for me to feed. Of course she was not serious. She was just parroting the views of the book she’s reading. Nevertheless her comments really made me focus on how precious my girls are.

Eve stayed home from school today and I just got a call that her fever is back up. I sure hope that it’s not too serious. I’m just so glad that I didn’t grow up in China.