This post was touching in a way that I'm not quite sure how to explain. I love the fact that Mimi and her stepdad are slowly and surely building a relationship. I love even more that my relationship with my mother and father is so solid.
How did it come to be that the parent who best nurtures me, who most praises me, who seems most genuinely interested and enthusiastic about me is my dad? My stepfather, a man who married my mother when I was seven and whose presence I actively and vocally resented, whose authority I flouted, whose educational attainments and verbal dexterity I mocked, whose presence in our family I made sure to question in no uncertain terms, at every opportunity?
I thought my best gift this Christmas was the eight weeks of yoga lessons Pynchon arranged for me. But maybe my best gift is this new realization, this opportunity to build a new relationship with my Dad. I think I might, if I'm brave enough, wait for a couple of days, and send him a private little card, telling him how much his phone call--how much his support these last years--has come to mean to me. I could never have imagined reaching out like that, but maybe I can. I really begin to feel like I should. Thirty years into our relationship and he is my dad as surely as my mom is my mom, with all the history and baggage that family carries with it. It might be time to take some of those bags off the carousel, you know?
Most of my friends have parents who are divorced. A lot of my friends have issues with one or both of their parents and/or step-parents that I will never understand. I know that my family is not the majority...but if it was I know that the world would be filled with happier people.
I guess what I am saying is that there is no time like the present to begin to mend broken relationships with those closest to you. I'm glad Mimi shared this story on her blog because it makes an impact on anyone who reads it. Sometimes the best gifts come in odd packages.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment