A Day in the Life of Chaos

They call Alaska the Land of the Midnight Sun.  If you are not from Alaska you may not understand but this is largely derived from the fact that long about the end of June there is about as much light at midnight as there is mid-day.  Eventually somewhere around 2 or 3 in the morning it gets kind of dim but never really dark.  Alaska is a land of absolutes in many ways and while the Midnight Sun sounds romantic the opposite that occurs long around Mid-December is Eternal Darkness.  During that time the Midnight Sun becomes the Midnight Moon.  In winter you pretty much live in darkness because the only day light is from about 9am to 3pm and during that time you are likely in school or working.   The contrast makes half of the year stand out so much more vividly in my mind than the other half.  When I look back into the deep corners of my mind the vast majority of memories that bubble to the surface occurred in the summer.  Summer in Alaska is a kind of orgasm of life.  To escape t

Being an American parent requires a lot of letting go.  It seems like you spend your child's life letting go and you wonder what if anything you ever get to hold on to.  Maybe it is simply the memories.  We certainly can't hold on to our children, if we did they would never fly.  They would never become the self-sufficient adults they must become in order to survive.  I suppose every species confronts the same dilemma.   The only difference is for most the developmental period is much shorter.  A bear for example would raise and see its cub leave in a year, an elephant in two.  Yet for a human being the time goes on and on as one stage turns to the next.  For most of us we will spend a good quarter of our life raising our children.  Arguably the time really only ends upon our own death. There is one frightening period of development all parents know we are destined for.  Sometimes we like to pretend it won't happen but it will.  It is running at us like a semi-truck five