Welcome to the wonderful world of
Mr. Alexander.
THEY'RE NOT MY KIDS....
They're HER kids...
ragtail, smartmouth,
insubordinate little
demon-spawn...
some kinda halfcrazed bad kharma
that she picked up
in an earlier demented existence.
Can't kill 'em...
can't even raise a whelt..
children of a previous man..
the man they call daddy...
the man who coulda fixed 'em,
loved 'em...
made them whole..
got some slightly damaged children,
like an old jigsaw puzzle,
all the corners are there somewhere
but lots of the edge pieces are missing.
It's a parent's job to find the corners
and make the outside frame...
life will fill in the middle.
It takes time..
and comfort
and safety
to discover the missing, buried edge pieces..
they're all in there somewhere,
but they become intangible..
amorphous
like strange fog clouds of sensibility..
Every now and again
little edge pieces float to the surface..
small tentative experiments
to test the waters,
like Noah's birds
lookin' for dry safety.
The trick is to make 'em smile,
make 'em laugh,
make 'em think...
the trick is to always find something to love,
something to nurture and treasure.
You can't always like 'em
but you can always love 'em.
They're not my kids...
they're my Congressman...
the policers of my future neighbourhood,
the teachers and nurses of my grandchildren.
They're the future heros and hobos...
the servers and senators.
They are the breath and life of the tomorrow
that I hope to see...
the pilgrims and missionaries to the rest of the universe..
the colonisers of space and time,
the savers and destroyers of the planet.
They need care and conscience,
exercise and ethics,
love and latitude,
discipline and daring...
trust and tenderness.
We don't want to hand over the future to illiterates,
to the spoilt and the selfish.
And so I become
not quite a daddy...
but at least a father...
homework helper, chore minder, mother lover,
finder of lost socks, dryer of loose tears.
cheerleader by proxy,
judge and jailer by default.
Someone wiser,
someone with a degree in foolish,
map of the mistakes...
guide to the gullible and cherisher of the childish.
I guess it's the same job we all have,
we grown up children...
we adults
we responsible citizens..
we lost and frightened bigger people.
They're not my kids...
but they're my responsibility..
they're my future
and
they're yours as well.
If you found any of these pieces educational or at least amusing, drop a note of encouragement to
and maybe more such pieces will appear....
and
Remember to hug your Kids
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