By Life is an odd thing, if you think about it. You’re born a squirmy, screaming thing that can do nothing for itself. If you’re lucky, you’re cared for by people who love you just because you share the same blood. You grow and you choose friends based on the clothes they’re wearing or the TV shows they watch or the color of their hair or whatever random thing makes them attractive to you. You learn skills, you set yourself off on a path to earn a living, and maybe make your own squirmy, screaming thing that you then have to love and care for.
It’s almost like we’re born with a script to follow…even if some of us don’t follow it all the way.
Today is my mother’s 70th birthday. She followed that script. She became a nurse, she got married, she had two kids…but then there was an unexpected twist written into the script when she wasn’t looking. She found herself divorced with two kids to raise with nursing skills so far out of date that going back to nursing wasn’t even possible.
She raised two kids, one who seems to be following the script pretty well. He married, raised two kids to adulthood, etc. Me, well, not so much. I kind of walked away from the script a long time ago. I never married, though I considered it once. I never had kids, though I considered that once too.
At my age, it isn’t going to happen, though I have considered fostering from time to time. I get attached too easily and I’m driven to fix things for others, so I think it would probably kill me to do.
I’ll have to settle for living off script, I guess. It isn’t a bad life.
I have a cup of Death Wish coffee and some edits to get to before I head out to see Mom. Happy Saturday, Readers!
Natalie J Case 