This year, I've decided to donate every dollar I receive for my children's music to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Life is already too short.
The words and melodies in these songs haven't changed from how they first occurred to me in the small hours of the morning, or on long car journeys when I sang them for my children to entertain them, lull them to sleep or distract them from their monomaniacal quest for more lemon poppy seed muffins.
There are over 60 songs in these collections, and it's only a small portion of what my children have given me. I hope that the music will speak to not only children, but also to those who have children, and who are similarly amazed and awe-stricken by the responsibility, weight and paradoxical levity that comes with stewardship of their lives.
I've never had any intention of building an industry on these records, it's always been my hope simply to share the music and invite friends into the complicated and bright world that parenthood has helped me inhabit. By channeling all of the money towards the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, I'm now also hoping to help push us all further from savagery.