On The Road To Future

Gojeh Sabz, near a rice field in Gilan, May 19, 2008.

This was a hard, but short work week for me. It's over, as I have taken tomorrow off to drive with my son, my sister, and two of my nieces to University of California at Santa Cruz. After this visit, my son will accept UC Santa Cruz's offer of admission. There has been a horrible fire in the mountains of Santa Cruz, and we are a little worried about being able to drive down there. On the upside, I don't think I have seen my son this excited in a long time! The excitement is contageous, to the point of all those loving family members wanting to join in the exploration!

I am grateful for my son's achievement and for my family's support. I asked him tonight if he didn't mind going down there with all these women around him! He doesn't seem to mind. You know, my children do keep in touch with their father who lives in another state. But I can't help feeling sorry for him tonight. When we have children, we spend so much energy to raise them as best as we can, preparing them for life. Our rewards are incremental and mostly of an observation quality when they grow up. They become their own people, making their own decisions, and suffering their own mistakes or celebrating their own triumphs. We can only get close enough to watch, and step in only when invited. This is such an important day in my child's life, and his father will miss it, much like everything else about their lives he has been missing. Anyhow, this isn't the time to think about those things. I am going to bed to catch some zzz's and get ready for a very important day in our family's life. I am looking forward to the road trip with the "girls," too! The way I see it, life just can't get much better than this. Have a brilliant Friday everybody. I will write again when I return tomorrow night.