A Day in the Life of Chaos

  The sun beat down oppressively as I shifted myself into a slightly shaded covered part of the boat.  Sea swells of three feet tossed the craft from side to side in a rocking motion more akin to a once balanced rocker trying to navigate a boulder placed under one side.   Rhythmic motion was replaced by a jostled frenzy.  I pulled a black hood over my head that when stretched to its full extent, left only a small circle of skin exposing my mouth, nose, and eyes.  A little more coverage and I would have appeared as nondescript, as a Muslim woman wearing a full Hijab.  I could feel my skin trying to sweat yet the 5mm thick neoprene that covered my body refused to allow the droplets any space to form.   Nervously I checked and rechecked my air supply. "There was air there right?" I asked myself.  I mean I think I had turned the knob the right way.  I felt somewhat like a contortionist in a freak show as I clumsily reached down and did my best to secure my two fins.  With the f

As children grow older they progressively separate themselves from their parents.  This isn't a bad thing, it is part of their own preparation for life.  Still it can be a hard and at times torturous process as they reach for independence and still want security.  As parents, we do our best to provide security but know in our hearts we have to let them go. For most teenagers their ambitions and activities take them away from their parents.  I would look rather odd riding around in the back seat of my son's friends car.  I would most certainly at best wind up in traction and at worst kill myself if I ever tried to step on one of my son's skateboards or long boards.   Still I think we as parents try to think up activities to keep our children close to us.  Often they are things that we desire more than they do and the activity itself becomes a torture to the very child we want to hold close.  In a sense our very attempt to be with our child drives them further away. I