Shortly before Huck was born 18 years ago tonight, I remember looking at his future high chair and saying something like, “Wait a minute. The baby will always be with us? Like all the time?” It was as if up until that moment he was an abstract idea, a so-called “baby of ours,” not a future roommate, not someone we’d share our lives with day in and day out. Suddenly it seemed so permanent – in a good way maybe – but still, very permanent.

Fast forward to the night he was born, and we never wanted him to leave our sight.

Fast forward some more, and this year Huck’s high school choir has been singing Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin.” More than once we’ve been in the audience as he and his classmates sang this to their parents:

“Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
And don’t criticize what you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.”

Happy 18th Birthday to our favorite person, our favorite topic of conversation, our favorite mystery, our favorite permanent fixture.