[82 of 100] The Daughter She Never Had
This past weekend, my mom invited my wife and I to join her to watch Mansaku Nomura and Mansai Nomura, two legends of kyogen. Kyogen is a 650 year old form of Japanese theater. Unlike its more well-known cousin noh, kyogen doesn’t rely on epic tales or high fallutin’ concepts. Instead, it involves the Everyman getting into ordinary, often comedic, situations. Think Seinfeld of feudal Japan.
After the performance, the three of us went out for some food. My wife and my mom chatted while I sat there quietly. Whenever the three of us hang out, I always feel like the third wheel. That’s not a bad thing. My mom has incredible conversational stamina. She can talk for hours on end without letting the other person get a word in edgewise. It’s tiring for me to have to absorb all that information. My wife? She can sit there with a pleasant look on her face and soak in every word. It’s not bullshit, either. She’s actually listening very intently and with keen interest.
My mom always told me she wanted a daughter. She said it was a joke, but we know what they say about jokes. They’re all born from a seed of truth. I can see the appeal of having a daughter. There are just some things a man will never understand about a woman. Soon, I won’t even need to be there when my wife and my mom hang out. I’m not sure if I’ll be jealous or not, but I know I’ll be happy my mom finally has the daughter she always wished she had.
