Grandfather clause kicks in for Lent

	Tom Rinkoski

I interrupt your normal Lenten themes to boldly announce I am going to be a grandfather! Maybe by the next column! I am very excited! How does that phrase by Carl Sandburg go? "Babies are God's belief that the world should go on!" I'm telling you, I believe!

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Time stands still when a baby is coming. Each little kick is a beat of the clock. Every time you hear the heart beat on the monitor you are reborn. Baptized in the sounds of life. The church may want to insist that it is Lent, but as a grandparent I know the time is called the third trimester. Maybe he'll be born in Mardi Gras! That would be really something!

The arrival of babies reminds us that God's time line is not our own. The doctor offered his prediction based on the calculus of medicine: March 7. But our family has a history of late births, hers -- early births. Just a minute, it is the phone!

My grandfather name is "Babu." So you can just call me that from now on. I took the name "Babu" because it is Swahili for grandfather. My son did his field biology work in Tanzania studying the raiding habits of baboons on crop fields. Soon, he will be studying the raiding habits of babies on adults.

As a word person, I like "B" sounds a lot! Babies prefer "B" sounds to almost any other. I'm guessing baby will be able to say "Babu" before "grandfather."

Wouldn't it be something if every Lent, we adopted other names? Or maybe go by our Baptismal or Confirmation names? That would shake up things even more than ashes on the forehead!

Announcing my imminent grandfatherhood seems almost anti-Lent. We Catholics seems to associate Lent with dourness, glum purples, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I am not sure that it has always been that way. It is amazing to me that no matter how difficult and painful labor and delivery are for all the women I know, what they talk about is holding that baby for the first time. Whenever they talk about it, it is with tears of joy.

We have Easter, and yet all we talk about is Lent. Seems strange. A confirmation again, that our time is not the same as God's.

The Stewardship theme is prayer, and all of a sudden prayer doesn't seem too hard or removed from my life. I didn't need a bunch of theology classes. I am spreading prayers all over the heavens like blueberry jam. Like a good Catholic I am praying all the angles: Jesus, Mary, Joseph and more than a few saints as well. I am praying for a short and safe delivery for Audrey. I am praying for the grace of parenthood for my lively and bouncy son. Many times over I recite my favorite prayer of "Thank You God!" for the blessing of a grandson. Now I need to start praying for the grace of becoming a truly great Babu.

It is therefore time to call on my Christian community. I need you to send in grandparenting advice pronto. I need it from professional grandparents. (Yes, I do have an AARP card!) Especially, lace them with tips on long-distance grandparenting. The grandbaby is in Des Moines.

I also need advice from little kids who have grandparents. Better than anyone else you know what is needed. I love to read storybooks and go for walks in the zoo. But it is a little early for that. I need it from teens who may have lost their grandparents. What is it you miss? What dreams and hopes did your Babu offer you? You've got a limited amount of time to teach me the art and science of grandparenting. How does the Christian message of love work its way down to the nitty gritty practice of grandparenting?

Consider this a new Lenten discipline. Come to the aid and assistance of your Christian community. Practice family spirituality. Be a Resurrection people with me. You can call them into (920)437-7531 or 1-877-500-3580 (toll-free), ext. 8304. Or, you can e-mail them to me (I am a modern Babu) at trinkoski@gbdioc.org.

(Rinkoski is the Green Bay Diocese's Family Life director and a professional story-teller.)