This is from October 2, 2001
I had lunch today with my son Sean. It was one of those magic times where you live in the moment and try to capture the moment in your memory. We had shared one of those glorious fall days that make New England the only place to live.
Watching him grow into a great bear of a man, a good gentle kid, kind and compassionate… that strikes a chord of pride, fulfillment and satisfaction deep within me at a level that is beyond articulation in words.
It’s not a possessory feeling; we can never possess our children, only guide them for those few short years when they’re entrusted to our care. Rather, it’s a visceral feeling probably coming from some strand of DNA that we all possess. It’s a feeling of pride and love and contentment that we’re related by a bond of flesh: son and father as well as by a bond of love that permeates my whole being.
Many years ago a neighbor of mine with grown children,then at the present age of my own children,mentored me on the joys and pitfalls of parenting and concluded by saying that there must be some innate satisfaction, some inner reward in having children, otherwise we wouldn’t go through all of the associated pains of parenting. He was right… I know what those joys are and how they get deeper and better as we age together.
I was fully alive that wonderful moment at lunch today with my son Sean and the memory of that lunch will, I’m sure, sustain me when I face days in the future that I rather would not.
Sent from my iPhone