The other day was National Sibling Day; therefore it is fitting that today is National Only Child Day.
I thought about dedicating today’s Morning Chalkboard to the ups and downs of only childhood, but I looked out the window and saw the Pink Moon.
If I need therapy to repair anything from my childhood, watching the full moon descending over the western suburbs should be sufficient.
I looked at today’s quote because it captures, or it is supposed to capture what our childhood was like.
I finished chalking it down and realized that I still laugh with purity and my dreams are still fearless and free.
Occasionally I will run into an old acquaintance or colleague, and we start to reminisce about our youth together.
It’s good to look back at old memories, but when the “gosh…. I wish we could go back to that time” comes out, that is when you lose me.
I don’t want to go back to that time.
I’ve done it, I don’t need to relive it.
We all saw the turmoil George Bailey and Phil Connors went through when they had the chance to relive.
I’m lying on my couch watching the Pink Moon crawl over Riverside, Illinois and I’m copacetic with the way I got here.
I’m watching the same moon right now that I saw before my first wet dream and in about an hour, I’m going to see the same sun.
I don’t need to go back to little league or the bond pit or the Chicago Stadium or Gossage Grill or Wrigley Field and pay three bucks for a bleacher ticket.
I get to make pancakes for my fifteen-year-old son in a couple hours. I am going to hear my sixth-grade daughter say innocent shit about cats and cupcakes and I get to listen to my know-it-all eighteen- year-old explain the economy and politics to me this morning.
Ask me in fifteen years if I want to come back to April of 2025. My thirty-year old son better be taking me out for breakfast. My twenty something daughter hopefully moved on to dogs and crème brûlée and as for my oldest son…
…he will still be explaining tariffs and democracy to his Oldman.
Because today is the time when I laugh with purity and dream of fearless and free visions.
The weekend is full of scrums, rucks and mauls. The Chicago Blaze has a match today and the Chicago Hounds take the pitch on Sunday.
Whatever you do over the next couple of days…
….laugh with joy and be astonished
