A new picture of my only grandson, Amedeo. He prefers to be called Ame. Pronounced "ah-me." Being a grandfather is a unique role. I have to learn as it goes. I had one grandfather, Grandpa McCabe, who I knew quite well. The other was dead before I was born. I really liked my grandfather, and spent a lot of time with him watching boxing on television. That's what I remember most. How we'd score the rounds, on separate pads, and then compare them with each other, and with the official scorers. Sitting in the den at his house in Iowa.
Ame and I have no such time together. We're made differently. It's a different world, peopled with different concerns. I certainly love my grandson. A handsome, quiet, polite, talented, young man. Not like I was. No. I shudder when I look back on my younger self.
What is intelligence? It must be a strong desire to keep learning. An awareness of how far we've come, and how much farther we need to go. A heartfelt, unappeasable, hunger for the right way of being.