Recalling my childhood after 41+ years is an increasingly difficult task. What I manage to uncover is a few standout events and a general theme of being cared for and contented.
It is only when I place my experience side-by-side with others who didn’t have it so lucky that I come to realize exactly how fortunate I was. I was, and remain, insulated from the seeming indifference or outright hostility that the world typically offers. I hope that my recollection is accurate and that it doesn’t make me seem arrogant because it was purely a matter of chance that afforded me what I consider to be a wealth of positive outcomes.
My parents did their level best to raise us as upstanding citizens who would live by some approximation of the Golden Rule. I learned from an early age the value of please and thank you, ma’am and sir, and to put out what you’d like to receive. As the decades have worn off the sharp edges that youth strikes out in all directions, I feel as though I am finally in a place to understand the value of these lessons.
Although I have lost my father, I have my mother and the one-of-a-kind relationship that we share. It is my sincere desire to explore this relationship to the fullest and truly know her before our time is through. I would like to leave no stones unturned, as I attempted to do with dad with a fair amount of success.
None of this to say that my childhood was without challenges. But any attempt to recall those times with anything approaching clarity results in a hazy memory devoid of feeling tones. I accept that the challenges were necessary and the lack of fine detail tells me that the good outweighed the bad substantially.
Life is lived in chapters and I feel it may be best to tackle the 200 word problem by doing so in order. Stories should begin where they do naturally, and mine began in 1982. Within the first year of my life, I would know about physical injury and the everlasting lessons that pain provides. But the overwhelming love and generosity of my family made it possible for me to make it through this to see past it and find happiness and some sense of who I am supposed to be.
The pain was an important piece of the puzzle, though, and I honor it.
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