On this fine Spring morning, I woke up to this post from Nick Cave, on his Red Hand Files. Nothing more needs to be said about it: – His response is perfect and fills me with happiness. Sometimes, when the world is really a bit of a pit, I need to read something like this from Nick, because I feel like he writes these uplifting and meaningful things straight from his heart, to my heart, and the hearts of all his other readers. I just have to share it with you.
I am reposting it in its entirety – nothing needs to be added to it.
He ends, with “Love, Nick.”
Thank you, Nick.
The Red Hand Files ISSUE #283 / MAY 2024 CHILD BY AUGUSTE RENOIR, 1904
My wife and I are expecting a baby boy next week. All the tests are normal but I seem to swing from terror to euphoria and back again by the minute. Mostly terror! [ ] No real question, I just wanted to let you know. MARIUS, LOCKPORT, NY, USA
Dear Marius, Last Saturday morning, I walked out of the Park Hyatt in Melbourne into a dazzling sun-filled day, having been awake all night anxiously waiting by my telephone. I headed into town and bought a coffee and a sandwich from Pellegrino’s, then walked past Parliament House and up by St Patrick’s Cathedral to Fitzroy Gardens, where I sat on a bench and considered your question. Of course you are oscillating between terror and euphoria, I thought, because what you and your wife are about to embark on is perhaps the most substantive course of action two people can take – to bring a baby, that fragile interwork of spirit and atoms, that squalling metaphor of conjugal love, that emissary of hope and potential, that boy of joy, into what is, by any measure, a deeply troubled world.
I thought about what a defiant and outrageous act of positive intentionality it was, of courage and faith in the human adventure itself, of resistance against cynicism, of pure, undiluted trust in things, and I felt a very real affection for you both.
As I drank my coffee and ate my sandwich, I thought of my son, Luke, and his wife, Sasha, who had welcomed their own baby boy into the world last night, and I experienced a wave of great elation. A breeze rippled across the lawn, the birds cawed, the sun shone high in the sky, and the great gum trees seemed to burst from the ground – all for my own momentary enjoyment, for a new grandfather, sitting on a park bench, on this most happy day. A child is born and the world continues wildly upon its way. I send you and your wife all my love and admiration, Marius. Love, Nick
Header image: “Gabrielle et Jean” (Gabrielle and Jean), by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Renoir, Auguste, 1841-1919; “Gabrielle et Jean”, Paris, Musèe de l’Orangerie, RF1960-18, sourced from Wikimedia Commons)
SEVEN CIRCUMSTANCES 
On this fine Spring morning, I woke up to this post from Nick Cave, on his Red Hand Files. Nothing more needs to be said about it: – His response is perfect and fills me with happiness. Sometimes, when the world is really a bit of a pit, I need to read something like this from Nick, because I feel like he writes these uplifting and meaningful things straight from his heart, to my heart, and the hearts of all his other readers. I just have to share it with you.
I am reposting it in its entirety – nothing needs to be added to it.
He ends, with “Love, Nick.”
Thank you, Nick.
CHILD BY AUGUSTE RENOIR, 1904
My wife and I are expecting a baby boy next week. All the tests are normal but I seem to swing from terror to euphoria and back again by the minute. Mostly terror! [ ] No real question, I just wanted to let you know.
MARIUS, LOCKPORT, NY, USA
Dear Marius,
Last Saturday morning, I walked out of the Park Hyatt in Melbourne into a dazzling sun-filled day, having been awake all night anxiously waiting by my telephone. I headed into town and bought a coffee and a sandwich from Pellegrino’s, then walked past Parliament House and up by St Patrick’s Cathedral to Fitzroy Gardens, where I sat on a bench and considered your question.
Of course you are oscillating between terror and euphoria, I thought, because what you and your wife are about to embark on is perhaps the most substantive course of action two people can take – to bring a baby, that fragile interwork of spirit and atoms, that squalling metaphor of conjugal love, that emissary of hope and potential, that boy of joy, into what is, by any measure, a deeply troubled world.
I thought about what a defiant and outrageous act of positive intentionality it was, of courage and faith in the human adventure itself, of resistance against cynicism, of pure, undiluted trust in things, and I felt a very real affection for you both.
As I drank my coffee and ate my sandwich, I thought of my son, Luke, and his wife, Sasha, who had welcomed their own baby boy into the world last night, and I experienced a wave of great elation. A breeze rippled across the lawn, the birds cawed, the sun shone high in the sky, and the great gum trees seemed to burst from the ground – all for my own momentary enjoyment, for a new grandfather, sitting on a park bench, on this most happy day. A child is born and the world continues wildly upon its way.
I send you and your wife all my love and admiration, Marius.
Love, Nick
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Header image: “Gabrielle et Jean” (Gabrielle and Jean), by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Renoir, Auguste, 1841-1919; “Gabrielle et Jean”, Paris, Musèe de l’Orangerie, RF1960-18, sourced from Wikimedia Commons)
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