Sky Rockets in Flight . . .

Today I stayed home. To write. To be quiet and deep in thought. Stephen stayed home, also. To jam with the band. Not our best planning.

I could tune him out when he whined and cried and had temper tantrums. I could tune him out in the grocery store when he wanted one of everything. I could tune him out when he hated what I served for dinner. I cannot tune out band practice. My neighbors probably can’t either. Even if I didn’t hear it, I’d still feel it. Stephen doesn’t play classical music. Maybe that’s important to mention. I like the kind of music he plays BECAUSE HE PLAYS IT. Otherwise, I would grab a cross, some cloves of garlic and run if I heard this music. Sometimes it’s scary music. Sometimes it’s very depressing music. Young-person-angst seems to be a popular theme for the songs they write. In my day, we kept our angst buried deep where it belonged. We didn’t try to work through our life lessons in music. And we’ve made really terrific friends of our therapists!

“Back in the day,” my music was to inspire me positively or for pure entertainment. And my mom didn’t like some of my music either. I thought that “Afternoon Delight” was about a guy having an ice cream treat after lunch. Really!! I couldn’t figure out why my mom thought it was a bad song.

I’ve really learned a lot from my kids. One huge lesson I’ve learned is to look deeper than the surface. I mean, really. Body piercings, Goth polish and lipstick, long ratty hair, weirdly shaved hair, metal teeth and don’t even start me on dog collars! We’ve had it all in our house. But, not one young person in our midst has been impolite or disrespectful. And, no, I don’t believe that every one of the kids do all these things just to get attention or that they simply need a hug. Some of them actually like that stuff. And many of them just keep coming back. So, apparently we’re not too offensive as parents. It’s hard to know sometimes when to worry. We’ve worried that we should be concerned about influence. Both our boys are 19 and 20. Even though they live at home, we are giving them a very wide berth to figure things out for themselves. It’s hard sometimes. I have permanent teeth marks in my tongue. So, for now I’m doing my part and taking LOTS of pictures to remind them someday of their “style.” I’m thoughtful that way.

Well, I gotta go. I’m hungry for an ice cream sundae before my therapist appointment.