Catherine, from her and K's short film
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Cat's about to leave/arrive
Everyone's leaving for their first year of college. My niece went yesterday. So this means I have license to be pretty sappy and emotional and sentimental for a while.
All the kids who graduated in 2011 are making facebook statuses --wistful paragraphs with the people tagged who they're going to "miss SOOOO much" sprinkled throughout.
Here's my kid's status:
Now there are some who would comfort me and say, "It's good she's ready to go! You want them to fly!", and I guess I should spin this as positively as possible.
But herattitude doesn't hurt me the way they think it does. Because I think I understand that it's not just me she's leaving.
Reflection:
You move your family, looking for safety and high-rated schools. You pray, you hear nothing. You crave a fresh start, the time is ripe, and so you go.
And later, too much later to do anything about it, you wonder: Would diversity of many kinds (not simply racial - also economic, religious, even personality drive) have been better for your kids? (Diversity of *any* kind...at all?)
You make all kinds of decisions that have far-reaching, deep impact on your kids. You make them in a hailstorm, half blind. You make them without the input of another person who is completely, on a DNA cellular level, invested in your kids. (Thank God for my mom, she's as close as it can get to that.)
And again, later -- too late to divert -- you realize you were wrong sometimes.
Reflection:
She contended with many things. She is startlingly perceptive, and sometimes it seems to me that people's motives are just laid bare before her. Naturally, she struggles with cynicism.
I want, I pray, if I could I'd will this: She'll realize that those things made her, not limited her. She'll realize that she was lead by love the entire time. She'll choose joy.
And truthfully, I'm glad she's not the type whose status is full of cliche and empty promises to stay in touch.
She's spending time with the people who matter to her. Anything she's telling them isn't being done with twitter or facebook, it's with real conversation. And I'm one of those people.
All the kids who graduated in 2011 are making facebook statuses --wistful paragraphs with the people tagged who they're going to "miss SOOOO much" sprinkled throughout.
Here's my kid's status:
Now there are some who would comfort me and say, "It's good she's ready to go! You want them to fly!", and I guess I should spin this as positively as possible.
But herattitude doesn't hurt me the way they think it does. Because I think I understand that it's not just me she's leaving.
Reflection:
You move your family, looking for safety and high-rated schools. You pray, you hear nothing. You crave a fresh start, the time is ripe, and so you go.
And later, too much later to do anything about it, you wonder: Would diversity of many kinds (not simply racial - also economic, religious, even personality drive) have been better for your kids? (Diversity of *any* kind...at all?)
You make all kinds of decisions that have far-reaching, deep impact on your kids. You make them in a hailstorm, half blind. You make them without the input of another person who is completely, on a DNA cellular level, invested in your kids. (Thank God for my mom, she's as close as it can get to that.)
And again, later -- too late to divert -- you realize you were wrong sometimes.
Reflection:
She contended with many things. She is startlingly perceptive, and sometimes it seems to me that people's motives are just laid bare before her. Naturally, she struggles with cynicism.
I want, I pray, if I could I'd will this: She'll realize that those things made her, not limited her. She'll realize that she was lead by love the entire time. She'll choose joy.
And truthfully, I'm glad she's not the type whose status is full of cliche and empty promises to stay in touch.
She's spending time with the people who matter to her. Anything she's telling them isn't being done with twitter or facebook, it's with real conversation. And I'm one of those people.
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