As a new father I experience two overwhelming feelings - of responsibility and empowerment. Responsibility for the life I have brought into the world; empowerment because I have the opportunity to change this world for the better. As Anne Frank once said
"the great thing about life is that one need not wait a minute longer to start improving it".
It's the second feeling that I find surprising. I could have imagined a "me vs. the world" mindset - the world as antagonist against the goal of maintaining purity for my son. But I rather feel closer to the world, more connected. To paraphrase Hemingway,
"I am glad to have a touch of melancholia (depression) because it connects me to the world and makes me a more empathetic writer".
While having a baby is not depression (but joy!), it does have that same effect of connecting me to a much wider circle than in my pre-baby days. You bring a child into the world. That child is brand new, pure as a human can be. Now, you may think, let's control the environment, the inputs, and keep it that way!
...Mute the tv commercials; seek shelter from loud traffic; shun noisy people on the street; malls; telephone wires; mobile phones; perfume; car exhaust...
But this is a ridiculous, not to say impractical mindset. This child, MY child, born of MY union with MY wife is now part of OUR collective species. For me the very idea of ownership is challenged. I consider what it was I actually did to earn these procreative functions anyhow? You've heard of open source software - well that's what our bodies are. I sometimes feel an urge to shout to the sky in gratitude for natural selection and the incalculable chain of events that led to my existence - and the even less likely existence of my son.
Anyway, the net effect is that my life is richer across dimensions to which I was previously blind, or at best merely intellectually aware. For example I used to rationalize my purpose. But now I rather feel a visceral sense of direction and responsibility. Specifically, to tend to and improve my patch of the human quilt - and this recently stitched adjacent patch.