The Beatles and my boy

My son must have been about 1 when we started playing The Beatle’s 1 album for him. We had it in the car CD player for about 4 months straight when he was 3 and his little sister was 1. They’d sing along with their favorites, even though they really couldn’t pronounce much. An early fascination with the music of George Harrison, through YouTube videos of “The Concert for George” and “The Concert for Bangladesh” (which he was eventually given for Christmas), aided The Beatles process in our family life.

In short, the sounds of The Beatles are burned deep into their brains, in ways that go beyond recall and memory. After a few years of not listening to much of their music in the family car, over the last few months, my three kids have been listening to more of them. We brought the 1 album back into the car again (after a prolonged run of the Hamilton and Moana soundtracks) and, thanks to the movie Boss Baby, which featured the song “Blackbird,” even the youngest Summers Sandoval is grooving to the fab four.

This resurgence of The Beatles in our familial life has re-inspired my son’s obsession with the group and its members, that obsession he had when he was about 2, only now it comes in the form of an 11 year-old who can animate that obsession with Google searches and online music at will.

This also coincided with our purchase of a new family vehicle, a family van to be precise, which came with a free 3-month subscription to Sirius XM radio. After lamenting that there wasn’t a Beatles station on the service, a few weeks ago we started hearing an advertisement for an upcoming Beatles station on channel 18, scheduled to premiere on Thursday, May 18 at 9:09AM, eastern time.

So what did me and my boy do this morning?

We woke up at the crack of dawn, got ready for the day, and jumped into the car at 6:00AM so that we could be driving and listening to channel 18 at the moment The Beatles station premiered on Sirius XM. We stopped and got some bagels (he stayed in the car to keep listening), drove around town, and enjoyed some great music together.

In case you’re interested, the first song they played was “All You Need is Love.”

45

No, not that 45. Today is my 45th birthday. It’s also the day after graduation for what has been an extraordinarily busy year. I feel like it’s been a really wonderful one, though.

On the personal side of life, things couldn’t be better. I feel like I need to focus more on reflecting on that, but when I do I’m just massively appreciative. My kids are healthy, loving, and brilliant. My wife and I are frequently overwhelmed but we make a great team.  We were lucky enough to move last summer, enjoy some special trips, and watch three amazing people grow up a little more.

Work has been crazy. I served as department chair this year and, while there is some satisfaction in the work I’ve done as a result, it is pretty demanding. It made it hard to be the kind of teacher I am used to being.  At the same time, this year also involved stepping into a new position as mentor to a group of 11 amazing first-years (now sophomores!!). They’ve really made my year fulfilling in ways I can’t even express yet.

I got to present my new work on Vietnam to a non-academic audience.  I got to bring some of that work together in a public history exhibit–my first time ever doing that kind of work.  As I continue to work on the book, I also got funding to put together a public stage performance based on the oral histories I’ve collected.

In short, I feel lucky, fortunate, even blessed.

Reaching 45 is less traumatic than I thought it was going to be. I’m solidly and undeniably middle-aged, but that’s nothing new. I feel productive and unproductive at the same time, the challenges of midlife and masculinity. On the plus side, Sinatra was 45 when he left Capitol Records and started Reprise and he put out a whole bunch of great albums then.

So I got that to look forward to.