SoNJSailor's blog: "Family"

Have you ever been out in Nature, and gazed upon a swift-flowing river? It is a beautiful river, sparkling and frothy, filled with diverse currents and rapids, calm pools, gentle shores.

Now and then you see a sandbar protruding from the surface; debris carried by the flow hangs-up on these and stays there. Until, one day, the current from the river erodes the sandbar and the debris on the upstream end is swept away, and disappears.

We, our friends and family, acquaintances, lovers and former ones, co-workers, the guy who takes your toll, and more lately the ones that join us via the cyber-community, we all stand upon a great shoal in the flowing river of Life. Every now and then, and in no particular order, one of our group vanishes into that great current; leaving those remaining to shuffle uneasily, and to wonder what the Hell happened.

But that sand keeps migrating downstream, and that proverbial dune keeps getting more amd more crowded. And sooner or later, we all stand upon that vanishing edge.

A very good friend of mine recently lost someone close, to that great inexorable current. No words that I may write here will make her feel any better. I have felt that loss as well in my life, and in my advancing years I'd better get used to feeling that more often, provided that I am not taken by that swift flow first...

My sweetheart, in a few hours you will "officially" complete a process that has encompassed 13 years of your young life.

I want to tell you that I stand in awe of you; the remarkable young woman that you are; the really NEAT person that you've always been; the fantastic ethereal gift that life has awarded me in permitting me to be the father of such a remarkable individual. Tara, you DID IT, Angelcakes!

Later today, you will step up to the podium, and receive your diploma. That is YOUR TIME. Once given that document, you will take a step away. That is the first step into a new world.

I'd like to say that the world you will step into is a perfect World. But you, and I, know that this is not true. It is a world fraught with Promise and Peril, Opportunity and Indifference, Ambition, Laziness, Enjoyment, Honor, Happiness, Uncertainty, Love, Contentment, Adventure.

Above all, it is YOUR World. Make it so. I know that you will look at this World and say, "I Claim. Mine!" This old man will be sounding the trumpet saluting you.

I love you my Sweetness. I cannot write the words that can adequately express my pride in you, and all that you have done.

Love,

Dad