|
|
Empowering a youngster to go away and start a new life is hard, even if it's the right thing. Perhaps it's hardest with the first (not that I have any experience). I guess I'm just hopeful.
We're here on Thanksgiving and I'm thankful that our immediate family is home for at least one more time. My inner realist knows that it won't last; obligations of many kinds will eventually intrude. That is, after all, what makes reunions so special. I'm still the same fellow who dragged my wife off to the west coast where we had no family because it seemed like the right thing. I expect our children to exercise their rights of independence and find their own comfort spots, where ever that might lead.
Adam got home yesterday and we were all be together for the first time since August. Such a short time in the long term view of things and as a parent, too long to go without just wrapping them up in your arms and telling them that you love them (or just thanking providence that they're still breathing). Then again, my nuclear family managed to take 34 years to get all of us together again for Thanksgiving. My aunts took things in their own hands in '99 and summoned us to Palm Springs. Strange as it is, that was the first Thanksgiving I'd spent with both my mom and sister since I'd graduated from high school and gone on my way. It was a weird and wonderful holiday.
Dinner tonight was a hoot and Jon summed it up best (the wisdom of the young!) by declaring his favorite part to be "the jokes". We ate and we laughed, and the laughter was best.
This time around I'm struck by some new feelings and wistful thoughts inspired by Brock Meeks. Most of Backwater on Bright Ave. is about life, with some wonderful stuff inspired by being a serial dad who shows his warts and is comfortable in his own skin. In I Kill My Kids Every Day, he once again puts before us the idea how short life is, but asks us to apply it to our children, which turns the whole idea of living for today on its head.
It's a wonderful perspective, one I wanted to pass along.
Posted by Dave at November 25, 2004 07:27 PM"... or just thanking providence that they're still breathing..."
Yeah, amen and amen to that, Dave.
Don't know how you found your way to Bright Ave. but glad you did and I'm most appreciative of the pointer to my "kill my kids" entry.
Posted by: Brock on November 28, 2004 11:00 AM commLinkMore than happy to provide a pointer, I've really enjoyed reading and thinking about what you've been sharing.
As to how I happened upon your weblog, it's sort of an interesting story in the study of linkage between people. I met the folks who wrote Blogware for Tucows a while back because one of them lives in Thousand Oaks. Through that relationship, I ended up reading Ross Rader's Random Byte's and he pointed to Bright Ave. shortly after you started as one of his favorite blogs.
Eventually, I realized that you were the same Brock Meeks who had entertained me so often in the CyberWire Dispatch days (I was a pretty early CWD subscriber and sad to see it go, but we all move on) and became a more dedicated reader.
Anyway, thanks very much for the comment. I'll certainly be watching.
Posted by: Dave Ely on November 28, 2004 09:47 PM commLink