I choose life….

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Patton Oswald recently tweeted that “Anne Frank spent 2 years hiding in an attic and we’ve been home for just over a month with Netflix, food delivery & video games and there are people risking viral death by storming state capital buildings & screaming, “Open Fuddruckers!”.   He was rightly excoriated by opposing tweeters who understood that the protesters were concerned about their job and ability to eat, not go to Fuddruckers.  While I am not personally out protesting (except by mounting my own form of resistance to the lockdown by going anywhere I can), I am concerned that we are forgetting what Anne Frank wanted most, to live.

I have long been saying that there has to be a middle ground.  Assuming that social distancing is working, if we can social distance at “essential” businesses (grocery stores, hardware stores, nursery’s, etc.), we should be able to social distance everywhere else.  Increasingly though, governments appear to be waiting for a path that all but guarantees the health of every individual and in so doing are killing our collective souls.

Let us recall that the original goal of the lockdown was not to prevent the spread and/or death but to slow the rate of the spread so as to not overwhelm the hospitals.  To this day, no one really knows how many people are infected. The Stanford (Stanford Antibody Study) and USC (USC Study) studies suggest that the actual infection rate is much higher than once believed. If the infection rate is that much higher than anticipated, can we conclude the lockdown was for naught?  Maybe. Maybe not.  What we can conclude is the so-called “experts” may not have (if ever) enough information to plot a path forward.  The only thing they know is that there is a virus, it is contagious and particularly deadly to certain groups of people – although thankfully not as deadly as originally anticipated.  We don’t (or shouldn’t) have to be doctors to know that viruses are rarely if ever eliminated.  If they were, we wouldn’t need vaccines or the yearly flu shot.  So why are we waiting for “THE” answer before lifting the lockdown?

As I was thinking about the resurrection over Easter, it occurred to me that our response to this pandemic had turned us into a worldwide colony of lepers.  Jesus’ life and death were supposed to teach us to conquer fear and here we were hiding behind modern technology.  While Jesus waded into the leper colony, we have isolated. Is it really necessary to avoid all personal contact with family and friends, to eye each other suspiciously if we are not standing at least six feet apart with a mask, to “snitch” to the government about those not following the “rules”,  to publicly shame anyone with the temerity to venture beyond their exact home boundary for a change of scenery or to dismiss protesters as weak fools?  And, in the greatest act of fear, did we really have to let our loved ones die alone?

A month may not seem like much for a person like Patton Oswald, who has his health, his video games and is having his food delivered.  I remember like it was yesterday, that a week between our son, Gus’ cancer diagnosis and his first treatment felt like a year, that eight years between his first diagnosis and his relapse seemed like only a few short months and that in twenty-four hours Gus went from being in remission to losing his life.  Which is to say that a lot can happen in a month. Yes, this virus is deadly and we sadly do not know enough about it to fully protect ourselves, but this month we’ve given up much more than the well-being we were after.  Existing in a perpetual state of fear and inaction is worse than death, it is a selfish squandering of the very breath denied to those that died.  Lifting the lockdown is not just about the economy, it is about acceptance.  Life is not guaranteed but needs to be lived to have meaning.  As my brilliant husband said yesterday, we can either take a risk and live, or do nothing out of fear and die anyway.  I choose life.

Questions Questions Questions

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It is now 30 plus days since the COVID-19 lockdown began and our moron mayor, Eric Garcetti, has no real plan to open the economy. Instead, he has outlined five (ridiculous) strategies the city will (allegedly) follow in order to lift the lockdown. The stated strategies are widespread virus and blood testing, real-time disease surveillance, rapid aggressive response, increase hospital capacity, and ongoing research and development.  WTH?  I don’t know why journalists don’t do their job.  Um excuse me moron mayor, what does widespread testing mean – 25% of the population? 50%?  How do you plan to surveil anyone if some COVID carriers are asymptomatic?  Who is going to make up this “rapid aggressive response team”? Are you just going to drag people off the street and turn then into emergency personnel? As far as we know, the hospitals were never at capacity so why do we have to increase it?  What gives you the right to demand treatments that are “based on actual clinical trials” instead of the “theoretical” treatments prescribed by our doctor? I mourn the death of all COVID victims to date and in the future just I like I mourn every death, BUT we seem to be ignoring a truth that is right in front of our face. Either the mortality rate is not as bad as we assumed, the virus is not really as contagious as we imagined or it’s been here longer and we’ve developed some immunity because we are nowhere near the number of cases and deaths that had been predicted despite the delayed action by our leaders.

As of today, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, IHME (founded by Bill Gates – just in case you wondered why anyone was interviewing him), apparently the only organization that had government sanctioned calculators, projects that by August 4 the COVID death toll will rise to a hair raising 1,483 in the entire state of California. (COVI-19 California ) What happened to the thousands if not millions of infected and projected dead?  Who the hell forgot to carry the 2?  Nevertheless, Garcetti and that gray-haired crazy looking lady by his side continue to tell us that the “peak” originally projected for mid-April, then at the end of April is probably closer to the middle of May!!! (According to the IHME it’s tomorrow). While real (not theoretical) millions suffer in a closed economy, Garcetti and his minions stall, play fast and loose with the facts and threaten us into doing what we are told with the various clubs of government – tickets, fines, and even cutting off our utilities.  

I seem to be completely alone in asking rational questions. Like, if the virus had been out since December how was “social distancing” really going to help in mid-MARCH?  Wouldn’t the virus have had more than enough time to infect us by then?  Isn’t it supposed to be super contagious?  Didn’t leaving all grocery stores, hardware stores, nurseries, and dry cleaners (really?) open simply direct the limits of our interaction to very specific areas?  Can we not extrapolate anything from the fact that such interactions did NOT result in a concentrated explosion of the virus?

Unless I missed the story (not possible in the 24/7 news cycle), I do not know of any outbreaks of the virus in grocery stores.  Shouldn’t there be especially when some carriers are asymptomatic, touched everything and didn’t have to wear masks until last Friday? I am aware that some (let’s say many) clerks have tested positive and I am certain some have even died, but shouldn’t at least one grocery store have become an epicenter of disease?  Even those hospitals that were actually overwhelmed with a large number of COVID patients have not reported that a vast majority of their workers were infected and died.  SO WHY THE CONTINUED LOCKDOWN? (Yes, I am screaming).

I have no problem wearing a mask if it makes the truly frail and the hysterical feel better (I am generous that way). I will stand more than six feet away from everyone if I must (I am not much a hugger anyway) but I am begging my fellow Angelenos, citizens of this state and this great nation, to please wake up, ask questions, fight back!  Our economy depends on it.

Oh no you didn’t…

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Do you ever have one of those days where it’s going great until something so bizarre happens that you can’t help but say “WTF?”  Unlike stories though, there is rarely any foreshadowing to real life craziness; the days are always perfect until they are not.

It was a gorgeous day yesterday, warm and sunny, typical for the end of September in SoCal.  I got up relatively early for the second day of my four-day weekend; sweated through my 7:15 am spin class; came home; took a long hot shower and casually read a wonderful short story by Grace Paley over breakfast before venturing out to run some errands.  After my last stop, I headed back home looking forward to spending the afternoon reading or painting.  As I’ve gotten older or just because I am trying to be one with the universe, I am conscious of being a polite and cautious driver.  I pull back and motion others into my lane, I keep a good distance between myself and other cars, and wave in gratitude for being allowed to pass.  Yesterday however, circumstances beyond my control channeled into my being a dangerous and uncontrollable spirit, a creature so powerful and unpredictable that it has come to me only once before.  It was intentional that time and only because it was necessary and in a controlled environment as I was behind the wheel of a real Nascar on a real race track.

I was happily listening to my tunes as I entered the freeway and merged into the driving lane as required well ahead of a dirty, beat-up, old, white four-door sedan.  I noticed the sedan change lanes, pull ahead and change back into my lane.  It seemed odd but not terribly disturbing.  Still needing to move left to catch the freeway home, I changed lanes again at which point the white sedan moved in front of me while the driver proceeded to wag his finger (WTF?).  Not believing what had transpired, I moved over again as a test and watched incredulous as the sedan scurried into my lane ahead while the driver wagged his finger again.  I understood then how Dr. Bruce Banner could be incapable of controlling the Hulk as I felt myself being taken over by  “Leadfoot”,  the native american spirit animal of speed but this time it was enraged.

First, Leadfoot lifted my hands and forced them into a simultaneous gesture so offensive I dare not describe it.  She then (because Leadfoot is female) scanned the freeway noting the placement of cars and open spaces and calculated the speed and distance required to blast between them. I tried to bargain with her, “It won’t work! It is not a movie” I said but Leadfoot now in complete control was positive the plan she’d formulated to entrap and elude the enemy would work and refused to listen.  Then, with the skill of an NFL quarterback, Leadfoot head faked left, casually drifting into the next lane long enough to engage the enemy.  When it was obvious that the enemy had committed to the lane change, she floored it to the far right, weaving through cars and pushing her white German stallion as though it was being chased by the devil himself.  At first, the enemy tried to follow only to find himself trapped by a surge of slower traffic and trucks as planned.  Soon, he was a mere white spec of dust in her rear view mirror.  When it was clear that we were no longer being followed, Leadfoot vanished leaving me panting and my heart racing.

The energy required to transform to Leadfoot and back left me famished and exhausted so that when I finally arrived home all I could do is grab a quick snack before crashing on the couch for a much-needed nap.  When I awoke, more than an hour later, the whole episode seemed too improbable, too much like a dream or rather a nightmare.  There are no dirty white Sedans who refuse to allow you to change lanes – are there?

Playing Adult Telephone

ConfusedScene: Southwest corner of the 6th floor in an office tower in mid Los Angeles.  Of the nine employees who inhabit the space on a somewhat regular basis only four are present – all women.  Woman 1 (Dark Helmet) – small, impish over sixty, wears her hair like a helmet; Woman 2 (Storm Trooper) – medium height, mid-fifties, stomps around the office, executes orders without thinking; Woman 3 (Maggie) – petite, young, sees everything, says nothing; and me (call me Hermione).

Dark Helmet:  “Storm Trooper can you come here for a second?”

Storm Trooper walks five steps from her cubicle to Dark Helmet’s: “Yes Dark Helmet”

Dark Helmet: “Can you tell Hermione that the invoice does not match the backup.”

Storm Trooper:  “Yes Dark Helmet.” Storm Trooper takes five steps in a slightly different direction to Hermione’s cubicle:  “Hermione. Dark Helmet says the invoice doesn’t match the back up.”

Hermione having heard the exchange, takes a deep breath and looks at the invoice she submitted over a week ago.  Dark Helmet is correct – the description says  7/13,20/17 but the attached report just says 7/20/17:  “It appears to be a clerical error.  Can I just correct it?”

Storm Trooper takes another five steps back to Dark Helmet’s cubicle: “Dark Helmet. Hermione says that it is a clerical error and asks if she can correct it?”

Dark Helmet: “Tell Hermione that she cannot change the invoice description – they will have to submit another invoice.”

Storm Trooper takes another five steps back to Hermione’s cubicle: “Dark Helmet says you cannot change the invoice, they need to submit another invoice.”

Hermione gets up and walks the five steps to Dark Helmet’s cubicle – irritated: “Is there any way that you can just ask me directly about this invoice?  I can hear you from my desk and it seems silly to have to talk through Storm Trooper.”

Dark Helmet: “It is Storm Trooper’s job to talk to you about the invoices and I am busy with other things.”

Hermione: “I am not adding to your work.  All I am saying is that if you are going to interrupt what you are doing to talk to Storm Trooper, it seems just as easy and more efficient to talk to me about my project.  I can hear you anyway.”

Dark Helmet: “Well I didn’t know what you were going to answer.”

Hermione is not sure how Dark Helmet’s response is apropos to the question: “So we all have to play telephone through Storm Trooper?”

Dark Helmet: “Yes”

Maggie snickers in her cubicle as Hermione walks away.

The total of the invoice in question is $400.00.

 

 

Hand in Heart

FiveWe always made a big deal of the kids turning five.  The fact that they could flash a whole hand to state their age instead of struggling to remember which combination of fingers to hold up and down seemed profound.  A whole hand meant that they were no longer infants but real boys, akin to Pinocchio’s transformation from puppet to flesh.  It is remarkable how necessary the whole hand is for so many things – unscrewing a jar, opening a door, shaking a hand, holding onto something securely, giving a reassuring pat on the back, and even celebrating a job well done.  On occasion, that same hand can hurt; it can slap, restrain, and halt our forward progress.

I intended to unleash my soul’s creative force this year through writing, painting or at the very least finishing a number of small decorative projects I’ve been meaning to do. Instead, I’ve been binge watching TV shows after work day after day.  I sit in the family room helplessly watching my hands fiddle with the remote until finding something so compelling that my head has no choice but to allow them to remain idle. My head, while at times enchanted and engrossed by the endless stream of shows, has grown increasingly frustrated. It struggles to remain grateful and find joy in what has otherwise been a great year.  In addition to being tormented with thoughts and ideas that have no place to go, the head is shocked to have lost control of an essential limb. The head was used to having to reason with a heart easily led astray by emotion but it thought it could always rely on the hands even more so than the feet that were known to bark when tired.  It never imagined the hands could muster such blatant disregard for direction.

With the head and hands at odds, the heart was able to think for once and realized the head wasn’t being honest about its problem with the hands. The truth is that the head cannot acknowledge the hands.  If it did, it would see a palm with five fingers and be reminded that five long years have evaporated in an instant. It would realize that when the second palm opens, Gus will have been gone for as long as he was here and the head cannot fathom that future.  The heart then observed that the hands do not wish to be so inactive, but are paralyzed by guilt and loss. The hands miss wrapping themselves around that child’s hands and rubbing his feet.  They long to hold the boy again not realizing that in just a few days he would have been sixteen and unlikely to submit to a mother’s caress. They can’t stop blaming themselves failing to heal or having enough strength to rip him from death’s grip.

I suppose it is up to my heart to bring the hands and head back together again.  The heart must find the will to beat strong and loud enough for the palm to feel it pumping through the chest and the head to hear it pulsing in its ears.  In the meantime, I will sit back and watch one more episode of…..

Gus goes to wedding

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When we baptized Gus we selected my youngest sister, Gaby, to be his godmother and my twin cousins Jeff and Jon, to be his godfathers (there was no way I could choose between them especially when I could barely tell them apart!) My sister and “the twins” as we call them are the same age and among the few cousins we frequent.

IMG_5629A few weeks ago the eldest twin, Jeff, married his beautiful girlfriend Holly.  It was a picture perfect California day in the prettiest setting for two families to come together to witness the joining of the young couple.  Standing side by side in identical blue suits, the non-groom distinguished by some pins on his collar, looked proud if a little sad and I could not help feeling sad along with him.  For the last 33 years they were together at every family function but the now married couple had recently moved to Seattle and I knew it would be difficult from now to see them in person (thank you FACEBOOK).

IMG_5557When vows and rings were exchanged and they were introduced for the first time as husband and wife, I was surprised to hear a mariachi start playing (although I should have known my uncle would make sure our Mexican roots were represented).  However, unlike the mariachi sound I am used to, there was an uncharacteristic softness and beauty to the traditional tunes. I was astonished to discover an all female group dressed in colorful embroidered skirts instead of the traditional “charro” outfits.  It was so delightful that I made my way towards my aunt to tell her how impressed I was.  She agreed they were great and wondered if I’d spoken to my uncle about how they came to be there.  It turned out that three days before the wedding, the traditional mariachi he had booked cancelled and as he scrambled to find a replacement he came across a group called “Las Colibri” (The Hummingbird).  And that is how we all knew that Gus was at the wedding…..

Dialing up some courage

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Among my favorite movies of all time is the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz.  Of all the characters in the story I’ve always understood the Cowardly Lion the best. Despite being told that I was courageous for going into architecture without knowing how to draft, completing college as a single parent or not losing my mind after Gus’ passing, in my heart I’ve always felt like a coward.  It never occurred to me that any of these accomplishments required any courage on my part; I was sure I could figure out how to draw lines; being in a bad marriage seemed a waste of my time and I had no choice but to accept Gus’ loss.  To me courage meant only one thing – facing my greatest fear – insecurity.

For most of my life I tended to shy away from anything that made me feel vulnerable. While I can be perceived as a loud mouth, I don’t like speaking in public.  Expressing my opinions makes me anxious because I am afraid of being disliked.  I refrain from asking for help because I don’t like to feel indebted and above all I hate to be dependent on anyone for anything including my husband.

I always balked at the idea that losing one’s child is somehow different from losing one’s parent, spouse, sibling or friend. I maintained that a loss was a loss.  It occurs to me now that I was likely saying this to remove attention from myself and the implied sense of awe that I was surviving our loss.  Losing one’s child is different however, not just because it defies a sense of the natural order of life but because it exposes the limits of our ability to perform the most basic duty of parenting – protecting our children.  We work so hard to nurture and provide for them that it feels like the universe’s greatest betrayal to snatch them away from us in ways that seem unconscionable.  The only blessing in this kind of grief is that it makes all other fears appear small and insignificant.

In the last five years, I’ve been chipping away at my insecurities one by one.  I’ve spoken in public on a few occasions; expressed my thoughts on politics and church law, and allowed myself to be helped by my family and friends.  This year it was time to tackle my biggest fear yet – allowing myself to become dependent on my wonderful husband.

For the last twenty-two years I have been a full-time employee at the same place.  While I’ve enjoyed the work, there were many times I considered quitting to be a full-time mom but did not because I was terrified of being fully dependent on my husband.  What if the economy turned? What if despite all evidence to the contrary he suddenly decided not to work? What if we didn’t work out?  What if we didn’t save enough for college?  The “what ifs” were interminable not to mention that it was empowering to contribute to our household finances. It must seem counter intuitive to change my working conditions now that I have no children to look after but this is no longer about being an at home mom – that ship sailed long ago.  This is another step (if not the final one) in learning to let go – to trust that my husband and by extension the universe will always take care of me.  So as of this week I am no longer a full time employee….. I am part-time.  WHAT? I said I was a coward…..but I am starting to get better.  LIVE – LAUGH – LOVE!

 

This Lent let there be steak!

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The Los Angeles Archbishop announced last Friday that in accordance with Canon Law he was granting a dispensation from the obligation to abstain from meat for St. Patrick’s Day because it happens to land on a Friday this year.  It seemed like the Universe was providing me proof that the rules are so arbitrary that I was right in deciding to let myself off the hook once and for all and stop feeling guilty for failing to faithfully observe the many (or any) religious rules and obligations .

While I’ve never questioned the existence of God, the structure and beauty of the world evidence enough of a remarkable creator at work, my faith has been at odds with the tenets of my religion since I can remember.  The internal battle between religion and faith began early. In second grade, I rejected confession as a humiliating and unnecessary experience because the surly overweight priest who clearly did not like children threw me out of the confessional for fumbling through one of the prayers.  In the fifth grade, I rejected some forms of prayer and most of the Baltimore Catechism because I did not think prayer should be physically painful (kneeling during the rosary) and because I thought it was a complete lie that God would send a baby to purgatory simply because it had died without getting baptized.  When I divorced my abusive husband in my early twenties, I refused to get the marriage annulled because it seemed ridiculous to attempt to get my horrible ex-husband to cooperate in a process to determine whose “intention” fell short of the requirements for a “Catholic” marriage. Finally, while I really did try going to mass most Sundays (mostly out of fear of divine retaliation), the time spent in a cold church staring at a crucified man while contemplating how I’d failed as a person, how miserable my life might be, how I should refrain from asking God for anything but obedience and how much I could look forward to in death left me feeling frustrated, sad and uninspired.

When Gus was first diagnosed with cancer, I worried that God had finally judged my lack of religious discipline and was punishing me. Adding to my anxiety was that well-meaning people said things like, “God doesn’t give you things you can’t handle”. Did this mean that God thought I was strong enough to handle a child with cancer and/or that I could have avoided the struggle if had I been weaker?  Or, “Everything happens for a reason” What possible reason could there be for a two-year old to have cancer?  I became resentful and easily irritated when people gushed over how “blessed” they were when things were going well but did not decry that they were “cursed” when things were going poorly. Shouldn’t God get blamed for the bad as easily as we gave Him credit for the good?  The more I questioned, the more I felt guilty. The more guilt I felt the more I tried to cling to my religion finding yet more questions and even fewer answers. Somewhere along the way I discovered Harold Kushner’s book, The Lord is My Shepherd and whether it was the intended message or not, it helped renew my belief in a good God that did not give cancer and therefore did not take it away but rather held your hand during the process.

For the eight years that Gus remained cancer free I was primarily concerned with making the most of each moment for the simple reason that I wanted to be happy knowing that sadness had a way of sneaking up when least expected. In ceasing to concern myself with my religion however, I accidentally stopped listening for God completely. In late August 2011, I was at a retreat for an organization I volunteered for when the presenter began talking about Psalm 23, The Lord is My Shepherd and remarkably Kushner’s book. It was my Mexican mysticism more than my Catholicism that caused me to pay attention.  It seemed clear that it was more than a coincidence that a book I hadn’t thought about since the first time Gus was sick should come up just when we were waiting for results of an MRI to determine why Gus’ legs had been hurting although no one including his oncologist believed the cancer had returned. I knew immediately that God was trying to get my attention because he had news about Gus and it was not good.

I always thought that God’s message to me that day was purely in preparation for Gus’ loss but I have since reached a different conclusion.  God was training me to listen more carefully so that I could find Gus when he was gone. Perhaps it is because I am so intent on looking for Gus, finding him everywhere we go, that I see God (whom I now call the Universe) so easily.  I am more aware than ever that the Universe has always been good to me and that my life is what I intend even as I miss Gus everyday.

In December, I found myself attending mass for the first time in over a year.  It was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the mass was being celebrated on a school campus that includes an elementary and a high school.  Being familiar with that priest’s affable nature I allowed myself to listen to the sermon that day.  Surrounded by six to eighteen year-olds he talked of Mary’s courageous choice to accept God’s plan for her and dared the children to be open. I was congratulating him mentally for the positive message when he added “but when you follow Jesus be prepared to be tested and be prepared for pain.” Who in their right mind would say yes to that?

I am aware that Pope Francis is trying to change the church to be more inclusive and forgiving and less rule-centric (perhaps).  I concede that I may have a child’s understanding of the Catholic religion having failed to read the bible and the writings of various saints. I accept that there are some wonderfully positive messages within church teachings and amazing priests that deliver them but my point is that a relationship with God should not require a degree in Theology or hunting across the globe for that one great priest saying that one great mass.  I like tradition and ritual but do we not deprive ourselves enough of good sense to add giving up irrelevant food items during Lent?  This Lent I return all doubt, pain and guilt as it serves no purpose.  No longer will I deprive myself of the simple pleasures in life just because the church says so.  This Lent let there be steak….

 

My Favorite Day

img_42891In spite of the persistent ache of another Christmas & New Year without Gus, I eased into this past holiday season intent on being “present” instead of rushing through it and skipping town as soon as Christmas Day was over.   I sprinkled the house with all of the holiday decor I had not given away and even resolved to watch some of my favorite Christmas movies as I’d always done.  I watched two from my holiday collection, It’s a Wonderful Life – my best-loved “be grateful’ flick and The Polar Express, a bittersweet reminder of my absolute favorite day.

When we set out that sunny and crisp Saturday in early December, (December 4, 2004 to be exact) I had no idea the day would come to overshadow our wedding, giving birth to my children or any of the other days I previously thought to be among my best moments.  It was one of the first “free” Saturdays after a very long physically and emotionally exhausting year of intense rounds of chemotherapy, operations, a stem cell transplant, radiation and seemingly interminable hours at the hospital and cancer center. If I were a reasonable person I would have stayed home, let everyone take a nap, especially our baby who had just been through hell but I am not and was therefore itching to make a good memory; to do something “normal”.  After brunch, the five of us headed to Griffith Park so that Gus could ride a pony like his brothers had done when they were small. I am sure that being only three, Gus had never expressed an interest in seeing much less riding a pony but I had the sense it was something he just had to do.  After he’d ridden the ponies we turned our attention to the mini-train a short distance away.  We did not mind that it was almost too small for the rest of us or that it went in a giant circle to nowhere as we climbed aboard. When I was sufficiently satisfied that maximum fun had been reached at the park we took a leisurely drive to the movie theater to watch The Polar Express.  It was one of Gus’ first times at the movies and he was transfixed by the music and larger than life characters on the giant screen. We ended our day with a belly full of pizza and smiles on our faces.

There is no question that I packed so much into a single day to somehow make up for the year of torture his little body had endured and although we’d go to the movies many more times after and have even greater adventures in the following years, I’ve often wondered what it was that made that day so unforgettable to me.  As I watched the movie this year allowing myself to be fully immersed in the memory, I finally realized what it was – freedom.  On that day so soon after finishing treatment but still too early to know if his remission would hold I had no choice but to exist somewhere between fear and hope.  It was obvious that if I gave in to fear I’d be paralyzed but could just as easily be crippled if I gave in to hope.  It was liberating to recognize that there was no one to blame for Gus’ illness; it had not been caused by a poor lifestyle choice nor was it a consequence of neglect, accident or evil intention; and since I was unwilling to believe it was some kind of divine test of faith, I easily relieved myself of the responsibility of trying to figure out what demonstrations of faith were necessary to cure him. I was struck by the idea that I’d been witnessing a miracle my whole life without knowing it. What an amazing feat that cells knew when to become a nose, a mouth, a finger or a tree! The miracle was that everything didn’t go wrong more often than it did.  I suppose I adopted the “life is too short” philosophy that day. The guiding principle that has challenged me everyday since to say yes to every opportunity and to find the happiness in each moment knowing that tomorrow is not guaranteed.  While I must admit that at times it has been difficult to sustain this new-found perspective,  I’ve been most surprised to discover that it is then that my faith takes over. It turns out that I never needed to find much less prove my faith in the universe (God) as it has always been there just below the surface like an electric current waiting for me to plug-in and keep witnessing the magic.  Gus, I miss you terribly, know that I can’t wait to see you again because I got your hot chocolate!

hot-chocolate

Hot! Hot!
Ooh, we got it!
Hot! Hot!
Hey, we got it!
Hot! Hot!
Say, we got it!
Hot chocolate!

(From Gus’ favorite scene in The Polar Express)

Semi-Adult Children – Oh My!

dscf0394I have two children closer to thirty now that son number two turned twenty-five in August. Outrageous! I am not old enough to have children that old am I?  I certainly don’t feel it and on a good hair day may even get away with not quite looking it (at least that is what my magic mirror tells me).  While I am not quite presiding over an empty nest yet because son one doesn’t live too far away and spends some afternoons foraging for food in our refrigerator and son two lives over the garage, the boys are rearing to go and I am anxious, eager and confident all at once!

My first two children were an unplanned – let’s say -“surprise” .  Mid-way through my first year of architecture I fell for a handsome guy at a bar and lost my good sense. We did the “right thing” getting married six months before our first son was born and then it all went to hell. Thankfully, he and his TV disappeared one day about a year later leaving me with an empty wall, an infant son and another on the way. I have no regrets for how it all began because the universe in its infinite wisdom gave me boys knowing that girl drama would be too much and that my future husband would be the best father and friend they both could have.

When the boys were small, before I understood that I was more of a tour guide than director, I allowed myself to imagine a single aspect of their future.  Although I dared not determine an actual career path because I did not want to be that kind of controlling mother, I did assume that one day I’d be dropping them off at university, (preferably Ivy League) festooned with academic and athletic scholarships. I reasoned that since I had been a good student, I could easily produce even better ones.  My dreams of academic genius where further buoyed when my now husband of twenty years joined us forever on my oldest son’s third birthday.  He too was academically gifted and disciplined and together our boys would have access to the best education and enrichment activities within a construct of positive reinforcement we could afford.  I could not have been more delusional.

It turned out that son number one was dyslexic with some sort of processing disorder, a fact that would take years and a long list of “specialists” to uncover.  By then he was floundering in school with reading torture and writing a near impossibility.  Son number two, eighteen months his junior did not share his brother’s “processing” limitation but he had his own, he loved to socialize far more than he liked to compete against his peers. Between a child who couldn’t and child who wouldn’t we spent a good number years exhausting all manner of tests, psychologists, tutors, bribery, achievement charts and even punishment to achieve less than mediocre grades and a chaotic household.

By the time Gus was born, ten years after son number two, I had begun to put aside the ill conceived notion that the greatest measure of our children was their academic and/or athletic success.  One day it occurred to me that I was driving myself and our boys crazy trying to turn them into little clones of ourselves for the worst possible reason – approval and acceptance from other parents.  I finally recognized that I although I claimed that they should fit the mold “for their own good”, I was embarrassed by their academic failures as my own parenting failure. What would my peers think if I did not get them into the “right” high school followed by a prestigious college?

I decided to trade the pressures of academics and athletics for a happy home and Gus’ short but well lived life would prove that I had done so at just the right time.  Instead of all academics all the time, we would choose a couple of days in the year for movie day, vacations over summer school, joy over stress. Gus had battled cancer and won, or so we thought when the older boys were graduating from high school. As a family we refused to make that final year more stressful than necessary and skipped the SAT, college application rat race.  Instead on a random day in January we signed them up for the local community college that best suited their interests and declared them “college” students. Gus was only the fourth grade when he passed away and ironically had expressed more interest in doing well academically than either of his brothers, I no longer cared I only wanted him to live.

In retrospect, I am forever grateful that the boys never went away to college.  Perhaps it was the universe’s way of keeping the brothers together for that final year, the three of them playing X-box until the very end.  In the four years since, they have each started to embark on the path that was their own from the very beginning; son number one an extremely honest and helpful automotive technician and son number two a recent graduate from a state university in finance and waiting to see where his love of speaking will take him.  They are both kind, generous, patient, loving, funny, creative, helpful and so many wonderful things that I can only stand back and marvel.  So far so good….