On the importance (& the fun) of having God-Kids.

Kurz nach dem Tod von Nicholas Albery erschien dessen letztes Buch: Seize the Day – 366 Tips for Living; A Tip for Every Day of the Year; Verlag Chatto & Windus, London. In diesem Buch geben 366 Menschen je einen Tip ab – von Bill Gates über den Dalai Lama bis hin zu Brian Eno und mir.

Werner Pieper was born on March 2nd 1948. For 30 years he is a leading writer & publisher of fringe-information under the name ‘Die Grüne Kraft’, (publishing among others Julian Cope, Heathcote Wiliiams, John Michell & Nicholas Albery in German). He introduced ‘green’ as a political color in Germany. Lately he organized the 1st International Conceference on the Prisoners in the War-on-drugs, in Heidelberg, Germany and wrote the introduction to the german edition of Howard Marks ‘Mr. Nice’.

When in those Hippie-years our traditional family-ties disintegrated, I tried to build an alternative net of chosen ‘relatives’ - instead of traditional ones. When two couples asked me 25 years ago, if I would like to be the Godfather of their kid, I first thought about the responsibilities that come with the job, if something would happen to the parents, and then about the honor of being asked.
A quarter century later I have to confess that I never had an idea, how important these kids (two boys) would become for my life. Being a Godfather means, you can have all the fun with those kids, that parents might avoid: buy the kid anything that’s loud and noisy, stinking bombs, do silly and share exciting things with them - it’s a possibiliy to re-live your youth, or, in my case, a youth I never had.
For a long time I used to say: “It’s better to be a good uncle than a bad father.” Being a Godfather helped me becoming a good father, if alone by watching my friends making mistakes with their kids.
When they grew up, I started traveling with those two boys, we shared some fun, not all of it ‘good & clean’. Now they are old enough to have kids on their own. My job with them is done, but now it’s their turn to take care of me, while I get older. They have to keep me informed about the music and what’s happening with their generation. Maybe later to smuggle me some noisy things to the elders home.