Waiting to be outdated

Last night while allen-wrenching the baby crib together m'sweet snapped a photo of me. I was hunched over the work-in-progress in a state of pure focus, caught her out of the corner of my eye and looked up with a smile. Click. I immediately thought that this picture will be seen by our not even born yet child one day. We will say something like, "This was only a couple days before you were born. We were getting ready for your arrival."

Think about pictures of your parents, especially those from before you were born or when you were really little. They are surely laughable. The clothing styles, hairdos, furniture, etc... was at that particular moment in time top of the line, cutting edge. But when we see those pictures it's like we jumped into a pimped De Lorean or dug up a time capsule in the backyard.

I set down the tools and drew my eyes away from the crib and looked around the room. I wondered what the camera had framed. The room is pretty basic. It looks like a baby's room from any decade, maybe even the '70s with our choice of yellows and browns. That doesn't count, not modern enough. The crib, white and classic. That surely won't be it. The PC in the background, if the camera caught it, would definitely be a sign of our times and one day hilarious. And then I realized, it won't be the room's contents that will be funny, it will be me. From my stupid hair to me geeky glasses to whatever happened to be on my 2nd hand tshirt that day. As I change, my appearance changes. I will probably have gray hair one day sooner than I think. My brown locks will be a thing of the past. Maybe I'll get that eye surgery everyone is talking about and my glasses will make for hours of laughter. Maybe I'll get fat and pictures of skinny Mike will be emailed from brother to sister to cousin.

But whatever it is, it's good. It will mean that I have evolved. Like that half built crib I too am a work in progress. It something breaks I hope I can fix it. I have an allen wrench.