Happy 18th Nick!

Today, my son Nicolò Zuane Carrera is turning eighteen. 

Tanti Auguri Nick!
Starting today, Nick will be able to vote (but not drink!) and will begin the process of getting a driver's license as all Italians do when they're 18  -- even though he could have done that when he was 16 in this country...  

As a Venetian Nick does not need a license to drive a boat though!

He has seen me work on the Venice Project center his whole life and he may even have felt a bit resentful at times about how much of my energy was devoted to this program instead of on him.

We spent a lot of time together though.  
My job provided me the luxury of bringing Nick with me everywhere (and I did!).

I am grateful to WPI for supporting the center and my family for all these years.  

And I am grateful to my wife Jacqueline for having brought Nick into the world 18 years ago in a snowy and cold January day.  Thank you Jaq!  

On Children

Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

WE LOVE YOU NICK!