Tonight, Liam created his own account to reply to Eric’s amazing solar eclipse images posting. He read the post I created in 2017 (Liam’s Story) of his diagnosis, and my biggest fears, and he sent me a Discord message that warmed my heart. He circled the part where i played out some of my fears then he responded to them.
#positivityftw
Tell Liam that he is part of the reason I am here. And that I draw strength from young ones like him.
Your comments made me think of a news article from an Ann Lander’s column, though its attributed to another source. I cut it out and carried it with me for many, many years. It goes like this:
June 21, 1987
FATHER
4 Years: My daddy can do anything.
7 Years: My dad knows a lot, a whole lot.
8 Years: My father doesnt know quite everything. 12 Years: Oh, well, naturally Father doesnt know that, either.
14 Years: Father? Hopelessly old-fashioned.
21 Years: Oh, that man is out-of-date. What did you expect?
25 Years: He knows a little bit about it, but not much.
30 Years: Maybe we ought to find out what Dad thinks.
35 Years: A little patience. Lets get Dads assessment before we do anything.
50 Years: I wonder what Dad would have thought about that. He was pretty smart.
60 Years: My dad knew absolutely everything!
65 Years: I`d give anything if Dad were here so I could talk this over with him. I really miss that man.
It’s amazing how our perspectives change, both as the father and the son, or the mother and daughter, or swap any of the roles!
I was re-looking at some posts and had another thought on this… I’ve been a father to a wonderful and successful daughter and now grandfather to her son. We sometimes forget to sit and be amazed at their “growth” patterns, i.e. their abilities to reason for themselves, how they take lessons we try to teach them…Sometimes rejecting them only to learn them themselves with time and experience…and sometimes to remind us of the wonders we’ve forgotten. I was with my grandson last night for dinner out, sitting outside; he’d brought a sports magazine and was amazed at how the windy would ripple and turn the pages…we sometimes forget to take in the pleasure of these little things because we “expect” them…
I wish my mom and dad were still around to share this with and maybe get their perspective….
