Pedestals again
Thrust themselves to the forefront.
Must one be flawless
To warrant veneration,
Or is human good enough?
~
When humanity
Struggles to be their best selves
Despite many flaws,
This is the heroism
That warrants veneration.
~
If our heroes must
Be alabaster figures,
They will not be found
Lest we manufacture them
And plaster them with whitewash.
How themes repeat.
He’s not what he seems.
People seldom appear just
As they really are.
The worst are often much more
And the best, often much less.
It’s best to reserve
Both worship and scorn until
Long acquaintance shines
Revelation’s light into
Their every crack and crevice.
An endless barrage
Of vitriolic hatred,
Social discourse has become!
My silence is not consent!
When the measure of
Temperance becomes just not
Hurling others from roof tops,
Have we lost all compassion?
Today, friends, is my son Ian’s 18th Birthday. I could not be prouder of the young man he has become. Smart, talented, and funny. I posted a humorous photo reenacting a picture of me holding him when he was a newborn today and an old friend reminded me of the gag I pulled on our family and friends waiting in the delivery room. I guess you could say, he as been surrounded by humor since birth.
Ian was overdue. We checked into the hospital very early in the morning to begin labor induction. Things did not progress swiftly. After 16 hours, Ellen was only dialated 4 centimeters. The doctor advised that it would likely be several more hours and gave Ellen an epidural. I went out to tell the waiting throng and asked my best friend, Lee, to go out to the house and feed the dogs.
When I went back to the labor and delivery room, things were radically different! Ellen was crowning and within a half hour, Ian had been born! After they had cleaned him up and said it was ok to have family come back, the doctor and I were talking about how you can never predict these things. That is when the diabolical plan formed.
I went back out to the waiting room and told our friends and family that things had really slowed down and the doctor thought it would be fine for everybody to come back and offer some encouragement and emotional support. I led the throng back into the L&D suite. The expressions on everybody’s faces were priceless! There was much confusion. Some people even thought the hospital had come up with some cutting edge program where they gave pregnant women other newborns to hold in order to stimulate delivery! Once reality dawned, there was much love and laughter. It seemed the perfect way to celebrate the end of 18 long hours of labor and the birth of our son.
Thank you all for being there with us and especial thanks to Lee, who missed it all because he was taking care of our dogs!
Dragonflies soaring
On thermals above asphalt
Far from any pond
Singing naught of hope,
Neither love nor compassion;
He croons to our baser selves
Ballads of terror,
Hatred and fear and mistrust.
Pray these become his swansong?
Twenty nine years!
An eternity to a child;
Not even a breathe to the world.
And yet, to me,
An endless drawing of fleeting breathe
That is my marriage to my love.
This quiet moment,
Unencumbered by labor,
Detached from worry,
Allows the weary spirit
To bathe in tuneless music.
Conservatives like,
IPA lovers, confuse
Alpha acid-bitterness
With Richness and Quality.
As the night draws in
And treefrogs cease their cheaping,
The time grows ripe for sleeping.
When duty drags us
From deep, contented, slumber
It must be Monday.
There are very few things that will compel a man, in his mid fifties, to hit the bed at 9:00pm in order to arise at 4:00 am. Most of those things are fun, or at least end up with fun; hunting trips, fishing trips, catching a plane for a vacation. Today is an exception. I carefully timed my retire and rising so that I could bathe and awaken my 17 year old in the one for him to get a shower, drive an hour, get something to eat, and still arrive on time for him to take the SATs at 7:45 (“the doors will close at 0800 and no one arriving after that time will be granted entrance.”). Despite my best efforts, I have found no fun in this. What I have found is a litany of name calling- douche, asshole, tyrant. I guess this is the price of parenthood. Still waiting for the fun…
A schoolyard bully,
Even in a coat and tie,
Remains, still, just a bully.
