Parents ❤
A random stream of consciousness that came to me on the train ride home last night…
You love your parents, just as I love my parents. We all would find it easy to utter something along the lines of,
“My parents are the best parents ever in the whole wide world better than any other parent ever!”
But to say something like that is to say that your parent(s) are somehow more amazing, relatively speaking, than someone else’s parent(s). Of course, we have the capacity to recognize that the act of making such a claim is quite ludicrous. Parents are the things that define our lives and our selves and our existences and our pasts and our futures. Obviously each and every one of us would regard the person(s) in their life who have such incredible influence as the best person in her/his life and consider that/those person(s) superior to all of their peers on the planet. This is nature. This is love. Loyalty. Unconditional gratitude and indebtedness. On the other hand, some of us are less fortunate — to various degrees — and can thank — or unthank—their care takers for whatever reasons. While perhaps the majority of us were raised by relentlessly caring parents, others (and hopefully an underwhelming portion of us) were not raised under such favorable conditions. And maybe the really good people have some extra bandwidth to share with those who are less priveleged. So what’s the point? Fuck if I know. I just thought of the fact that my parents are total badasses, and in a moment of inspiration I decided to spill words onto the screen of the computer from my pocket. I can’t imagine who I would be or what I would be doing, if it weren’t for their positive guidance. They’re currently playing Gramma and Papa to two (of six) of my nieces and nephews. I paid for the kids’ flights from Colorado to Indiana so this would happen for them all. Not so I could write a sappy blog post through which I could brag about having lots of money to buy plane tickets (for that would be a fabrication, because I don’t), or having extra airline miles because my extravagant lifestyle allows me to fly so much (again, a stretch from reality), or to convince someone that I’m an awesome uncle (ok, this isn’t so far from the truth;) But instead, so I could get GroupMe messages from my mother that include my niece and nephew learning how to bait their first hook and whittle their first stick. And so these two kids, years from today, can remember that one time they spent a week in the country with their grandparents.
Parents are amazing. Eventually they become grandparents that are even more amazing. If you had an amazing parent and/or grandparent, consider yourself super lucky and tell them thanks if you can. If you didn’t, or feel that maybe you were slighted in this aspect of life, then make just one focus of your life to be that amazing person for someone else who needs and wants you to be that person.
I love my mother, father, grandmothers, grandfathers, great grand____ people. A lot. Thank you, to you all. One day, I might be as amazing as you.
