Offspring

Here’s a fun one for parents and children of all ages.  How many parents hope their children achieve what they did not?  Live more openly, more honestly?  Never blast off without thinking into the courthouse and in the homes of neighbors.  

I read a quote recently about love.  That is to say, real love is about letting go, at least with children.  Accepting them as they are.  They didn’t ask to come on board.  Most don’t know how they will check out.  And in between, they have to deal with credit card companies, sly banks, insurance companies that do not pay.  Shysters whose pockets are filled with lint and candy wrappers.

Both we and our charges ought, as best we can, follow our bliss.   

And here’s a poem from mother who has enormous hope.  Let us free our charges of that awesome, powerful state, freedom.

Genes  by Sharon Dunn

My eleven year son wants to fish,
he owns two rods, one saltwater,
one freshwater. He loves knives,
Bowie knives, Swiss Army
knives, "Knives like this one?"
my brother says, opening his desk
drawer and taking out a small
jackknife with antler handle.
My boy camps outdoors, begs to sleep
outside, is always shooting
arrows, rubber band guns,
he is lashing together a fort
in the backyard. He sails,
swims, kayaks and wants
to know the stars.
The outdoor hunting genes
are in the dark men in my family.
Yet I believe he is a son of light.
His joy in reading, cooking
and piano are fanned
from the tinderbox
of his father's heart.
He will save rainforest,
he will grow vegetables,
keep horses, fly his own plane.
He will make his own brave life,
he will not remake our lives
nor redeem us, nor pity us.