The Last Post of the Year
The dogs have settled down in their crates, except the smaller ones that suspiciously eye the Wife as she packs for her trip to Africa tomorrow. Our little one is out flexing his not so little wings at an overnight chaperoned party, and I try not to let my worries for both take over. It seems that so little was accomplished this year, but it’s an illusion.
The other day the Kid was standing next to me as we shot skeet and I felt instinctively that another man stood beside me. It frightened me in one way and relieved me in another. I could no longer protect him from the world as I had when he was an infant, yet at the exact same time I felt the relief of knowing that I had somehow – no, we had somehow – helped craft the infant from 14 years ago into the beginnings of a good man. We had successfully laid the foundation upon which the Kid would build his life, and there is great relief knowing that when all was said and done, we hadn’t done badly. It would soon be up to him to decide the type of building he would set upon that foundation.
As for the Wife, over the past year I have watched her mature into a fine doctor. All the years of rides to school, pick ups from dodgy rail stations, dried tears after tests, encouragement and dogged determination had resulted in a doctor who could hold her own against the best in her field. We have come a long way from the Scripps Clinic parking lot in San Diego via the winding streets of Ponto-cho in Kyoto and the dusty trails of the Mahale Mountains.
So tonight I will stand in the cold with a handful of fireworks to welcome in the New Year in the way that I choose, filling the cloudy sky above my little patch of heaven with color and light. Chasing away the demons and welcoming the animal spirits of the New Year as the Chinese have done for a millennium.
Leave a comment