Some of My Thoughts About Parents

         
1955-ish Me, Mum, and Wardie Boy

1956, Cape Cod, Me, Dad, and Wardie Boy

What is a parent?

A question NOT easy to answer.

How curious that we need a license to drive,

Another license to marry,

And even a license to go fishing…

But there is no license at all required to BE a parent.

As parents, we’re often relieved at this.

Goodness knows we’re all just punting 99.9% of the time.

What we know is what we got.

We might rise high above that sometimes,

And sink way BElow it, too.

Yet no matter how we try,

How firm our convictions,

Most everyone parents the way they were parented.

When we celebrate parents,

On Mother’s and Father’s Day,

Many of us have to make an extraordinary effort,

Leaping tall buildings in way too many bounds…

How to move past the efforting to REALLY celebrating?!

It’s a mystery, that’s for certain.

Does a card, a gift, a breakfast in bed REALLY celebrate a parent?

Is it “all good” if we get our calls and make our calls,

Those of us old enough to have our own kids

AND still have our parents as well?!

These are questions NOT easily asked OR answered.

These are the things that shouldn’t BE considered only during

The 2 months each year BEfore they happen.

There is so much about BEing a parent that could NEVER

BE fully examined in a licensing process,

Perhaps explaining why no license is required.

Still, I am someone who thinks these thoughts and worse still

Writes them out for all to see…