Bruno Bettleheim once wrote, "If we hope to live not just from moment to moment, but in true consciousness of our existence, then our greatest need and most difficult achievement is to find meaning in our lives." But meaning comes around and goes around and is ever changing. A & D pictured here with the alien are a huge part of the meaning of my life. But change is inevitable - A is currently in Malta playing international tennis - today is the quarter finals. But this year alone she has been in Istanbul; Copenhagen; Stockholm and Helsinki. And D, well he will be fifteen on Monday and he is taller than me now. Bettleheim also wrote, "Today, as in times past, the most important and also the most difficult task in raising a child is helping him to find meaning in life." I can see how that works and yet how much of it is luck, or having a sense of humour, or just helping them to grow - not just physically but in experience and humour and laughter and... soon they will be all grown up and leaving home. Since this is April the first today, surely it is some kind of joke life plays on us. Because I expect when we see them photographed (above) we never really feel as though they will grow old and go - what a scary thought.
And yet this was them most recently (aside) dancing in a fountain, still pals and happy to be on holiday together. I hope that lasts forever. Am I maudlin here? Wallace Stevens might call me the man with the blue guitar and that is such a great poem:The man bent over his guitar,
A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.
They said, You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are...
There is no fool like and April fool, huntigowk - time for Martin Simpson - such a good picker... and if you follow this link there is loads of his stuff at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, California on November 19, 2008. I once saw him live in Brighton, in The Greys pub, superb - such a blue guitar - and killing the blues!
