I’m new to this grandfather business, still learning how to do it and get used to it, my daughter is good enough to send me occasional photos of my granddaughter Robin, and I like receiving them, I live far a way and have to work at the geographic and emotional challenges for me.

I don’t every show photos of my family or my dogs to others, except on the blog, people should have a choice about seeing them. I have even been sharing photos of Robin from time to time, and this surprises me.

I have always found it a bit annoying to have to look at scores of photographs of someone else’s baby, it’s about the same thing as being shown endless phone photos of somebody else’s cute dog, which happens to me all the time.

It’s not really the same if they are not yours, and I have never quite grasped what drives people to do that.

So I don’t have photos of Robin in my Iphone and I don’t show photos of her to other people.  I imagine that if I did,  they, like me, would nod and smile graciously, then mumble some platitude and then think, this is like those relatives who used to show endless slides to visitors of their family outing in the Grand Canyon.

I put one photo of Robin up to introduce her to people, and another when she first started to smile, those got my attention, they revealed perhaps a bit of spirit inside. That will be the fun part for me, watching Robin’s spirit emerge, bit by bit.

I was more than a little startled to see those photos were appreciated, and very much wanted. Every photo of Robin that I have posted has gotten hundreds, if not thousands of shares, and all kinds of sweet comments on Facebook. I am, as usual, out of sync with the world, many people do  like to see photos of other people’s babies, and many people have thanked me for showing them.

Is this a gene that is missing in me, this awwww-how-cute way of looking at babies and dogs, or is it a gene that is missing in me. Just you wait, people say, she will bowl you over. One friend posted a photo of her granddaughter with an explanation saying her daughter has put limits on how many photos she can share.

Narcissism is a personality trait, some say disorder, in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a need to be admired. There is sometimes that sometimes feels narcissistic to me about the need for others to admire my granddaughter or my dogs.

Why not just love her and look at the photos, what compels me at all to share them on my blog. My own answer is that I think love has something to do with it. When you love something, your soul fills to the brim, sometimes overflows, love brings a sense of joy, and joy is something we are compelled to share, it is exciting and brightens the world.

So much unwanted bad news is shared with people – sometimes way too much bad news – that is seems appropriate to share some good news, and Robin is good news to me.

When I fell in love with Maria, and saw that she loved me, I couldn’t want to tell everyone I knew, I was so happy about it, and felt so much joy. Such a feeling was too powerful to keep all to myself, I wanted to share my luck and happiness with others. I remember telling the cashier in a supermarket that I got the girl I loved, and she was happy for me. The didn’t seem to mind at all, I had the sense it brightened her drab day.

Still, it is something I want to keep in check, I want to think of narcissism and be aware of the true interests of others. I’m not putting photos of Robin in my Iphone to whip out at dinner parties, and since I rarely go to dinner parties, that won’t be much of a problem.

When I put up a photo of Robin I can’t pretend that I am doing this just for you, I am obviously doing it for me. And I am learning that many of you enjoy following this journey and seem to know better than I do how it will turn out.

I think it is a sign that my love for my granddaughter is stirring, those smiles do penetrate,  and I will continue to share this passage from time to time, and remember to put limits on how much of this I need to show to  other people.