4:00 am, Eastern Daylight Time, Bloomington IN.
Every door in the house slams either open or shut. The wind is blowing so hard curtains are flying straight out from the window. Suddenly, the rain, lightening and thunder, along with a smattering of hail centers directly over our living quarters. (I would say "House" but it is not technically a house. It's a 'something-plex'.) Anyway, I get up close all the windows because the rain is POURING in. I tell Sarah to come with me to the downstairs bathroom and we head down the stairs. Those of you who know me, know that I am FEARLESS in the face of tornadic weather. But that's mainly because I can usually sleep through it. The tornado sirens are bleating and Sarah, Butch and I settle down in the bathroom and wait for the sirens to stop. However, they don't.
Eventually, Sarah and I start talking, and she begins to tell me how really wrong the world is right now. President Bush is actually EVIL. We are a selfish people who think only about getting rich and not about helping the poor and unfortunate in society. Marriage is a dead institution, people shouldn't have kids because the world is over populated. I take all this in, and say something along the lines that Bush may not be the best president we have ever had, but the other choice was worse. We do tend to like our money here, but aren't we lucky that we have it to like. If, however, she wishes to take her $7.00 per hour salary which is really only about $5.25 NOW after state, federal, county, ss and medicare taxes are removed, and THEN take a couple more dollars per hour out to give to people who don't want to work, then, feel free. I, however, will hang on to my extra bucks. She protested that that isn't really fair and we should all help each other. (Gasp - that sounds suscpisiously like Communism!) So, I point out several people we know that are lazy, do not work, live off other people and the government, but are PERFECTLY healthy and able to work. They just choose NOT to bother. That gave her pause for a moment.
On to the INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE. We spoke of committment, and I pointed out how hollow committment is if you don't follow through with actual actions of committment. Kids. Yeah, the world may or may not be overpopulated, but the US is not overpopulated. Not having kids here is not going to keep Third World Nations from having kids, however. Hmmmm.
I can see the condecending attitude building and how really stupid she thinks her mother is. And it makes me laugh right out loud. I tell her, "Ah Youth. I remember when I was like you are now. There was a time when I was your age and the most important thing to me was Saving the Whales. Never mind that I lived in Iowa and had never even SEEN a whale first hand. I was going to save them from the tragedy of unfair hunting and extinction. I told her my Uncle Charlie thought that was hysterical and decided to "Save the Walrus" and put an article and magnet on the refrigerator discussing the plight of the Walrus. You know, it was probably 2 years before I realized he was making fun of me, and trying to teach me how silly I was. I remembered him asking me why I picked "saving whales" as opposed to helping starving children in my own area. I remembered looking at him like he was just SOOOO out of touch. Now, I realize how really IN touch he was and how silly I was.
Having said all of this, thank GOD for youth. Because the passion they bring to things in our world really can change bad things to good things. Fresh ideas are always nice. (Not that any of her ideas are FRESH. I've heard 'em all before...) Most important of all, however, is their ability to make us remember our youth and take a break from all that "grownup-ness". Even if it's just for an hour, sitting on the bathroom floor with your almost-grown daughter, waiting for a storm to pass.
New Years Eve 2021
2 years ago
