Sibling Rivalry
There’s a scene in David Lynch’s movie The Straight Story where the main character is watching two brothers antagonize each other while fixing his lawn mower. After calling them out for bickering, he tells them there’s nobody in the world who can know you as well as a brother can.
While that may be true, there’s also nobody in the world who can push your buttons like a brother can (or a sister).
Tweens
My older children have been trying to assert themselves more and more recently. Sometimes they do so in productive ways, sometimes in very unproductive ways. Last week, in the throes of a panic attack, my daughter broke a family picture that she thought my wife and I would deem too valuable to lose.
Watching her do this, I thought of all the family history on my side of the family potentially feeding her behavior (genetics, unresolved generational traumas, etc).
Like Attracts Like
On an empty walking path, bordering a set of defunct railroad tracks, I spotted a single crow, perched on the rail of an unused tower, looking off into the distance. Did it want to be alone? Did I want to be alone? Were we looking for each other?
Chemo
As fall progresses, so does the treatment of my father-in-law’s cancer. In some ways, the treatment and the season go hand in hand.
Endless Curiosity
As a chauffeur of a soon to be two-year old, my afternoon drive home is often an ongoing inquisition: What’s this? What’s that? Where’s Mommy? Where’s Ba-chan? What’s this? Why? Where’s Ni-chan? What’s this?
Normal but Not
Driving down the highway, I was suddenly struck by how strange and normal it is at the same time to see the moon in the day-time sky. It’s something that I had never thought about before, but typically, the moon is associated with the night, and yet, on however many days a year, it can easily be seen in the day-time sky. Seeming out of place, my imagination ran away with me and I pictured the moon as a child being led away from its place of safety by false promises.
Counting the Ways
Superimposing images of the present with potential futures. It’s a thing that comes with age.
Looking around at all the younger people, watching their actions, seeing where they are in their lives, knowing a thing or two about where they are most likely going, it’s easy to do.