My daughter and I have been going shopping a lot lately. Or, rather, I’ve been going shopping a lot lately, and Jolie’s come along for the ride, because being a parent of an infant entails finding lots of ways to kill time while keeping your kid happy. And I like to shop, and Jolie bag’o’donuts likes nothing more than to move around in the world from the vantage point of the Baby Bjorn strapped to my torso.
The shopping, and the being the only dad alone with his baby amidst the legions of moms alone with their babies, has given me cause to reflect, a fair amount, on something that the Pretty Lady said in a post a while back. Explaining her theory of how to be sexy, she wrote:
your task is to become so much yourself–quirky, odd, or pathetic as this may be–that you unwittingly assemble a cult following of hard-core fans. Do not think of how to please the masses. The masses have notoriously terrible taste. Notice the dumbest things about yourself, and cultivate them; nay, flaunt them. Occupy your territory.
I’m not someone who, by and large, moves around in the world feeling sexy, but it’s oddly been the case that I’ve never felt sexier in my life than I do when I’m being a loving dad and walking around the mall at the same time. I think I might be occupying my territory. It’s a nice feeling.
