Back to School

 My kids have been back to school for over a week now; every morning, I get up and I pack their lunches. Some days they've stayed here, other days their mom brings them over to my house before she goes to work, so they can catch the bus here.  But every day, I get the privilege of seeing them off on the bus. It can be a rush in the mornings - especially when I'm getting them dressed, making breakfast, putting together their lunch boxes, making sure their backpacks are set, and getting them out the door and on the bus - but to me, these mundane chores are magic.  I marvel at the fact that I have little people of my own that get on that bus - and later in the day, they get off it, run up to me and just start babbling to me about their day or whatever else is on their mind.  We're pretty close now, my children and I.  I know it won't always be like this as they age, but right now... it's a magic moment in time, and yet again, I'm thankful that I'm even alive to experience it.  

This circle of life thing is a wild carousel; it feels like just a short time ago, I was changing their diapers, rocking them to sleep - swaddling them snugly so they could sleep! And then I think of myself, and I feel the ocean of time wash over me and I remember riding the bus to the very same school they're attending now - only for me, it was 37 years ago.  Prior to my kids orientation, I hadn't set foot in that school in 32 years.  It was recently renovated over the summer - and many features changed.  I noted a new entrance way, and it's safety features... very different from the wide open main entrance of my youth, with a giant, open atrium.  I noted in my mind, sadly, why the changes.  The heavy, lockable doors that separated things were a terrible reminder of the world we live in now.  This will just be normal to my children, going forward - a sad thought to me.  We always wanted a better future for ourselves and our potential children when we were younger, and while we have many new miracles of technology, I do wonder if my kids have a better world than I did at their age.  They're certainly happy, and I'm thankful for that.  But on some level, I do feel society has failed them. Education isn't just about learning facts; it's about gaining insight, and wisdom. It just feels like there's less and less room for the wisdom of whimsy as a child, these days.  I don't have any answers yet, and neither does society at large.  Right now, I am glad that their safety is a priority, at least at that level.  But it goes beyond just keeping a secure campus - our society is less secure.  Angry.  Polarized, energized, desensitized and with out good guiding principles in many ways.  So I do hope in my kids lifetime, things improve. 

Right now, as I write this, I'm waiting for them to come home, and tell me what they did today.  We'll do this all again tomorrow, and I am happy, lucky and fortunate to be here, to be their father and to be given the opportunity to love and guide them.  Cliches are cliches for a reason - so enjoy all the mundane, stupid stuff.  It's what matters.