Out here in the boonies, in my neighborhood, we have an odd assortment of crackpots, oddballs and individual thinkers. I believe I fit right in. We mostly ignore each other, which works well for me. When I first moved here, I had heard about plenty of strange fights, some involving the calling of police, others involving alcohol and absconding with money collected from neighbors to repair our dirt road. It was inevitable that at some point I would join in the merry fracas, but thought that keeping to myself would either make it less likely or at least less frequent. I have wondered if I sometimes overreact, and if we country folk aren't that bizarre, despite Sunday morning target practice. I would like to offer some proof to the contrary.
Yesterday I had a couple of friends out to enjoy the beautiful fall day. Neither had been here before, and one of my friends got lost. She was on the longish dirt road, and having a hard time making out the 4 digit numbers on the mailboxes, which is not at all uncommon. At one point, my friend pulled into the wrong yard, and apparently, instead of backing out pulled around on the "grassy" "lawn" (I use both terms loosely when referring to the green stuff that grows on the ground in my neighborhood) and drove out.
Hours later, we were enjoying a glass of wine on my porch when a big SUV began to drive by, backed up, and then pulled into my "driveway." It was the only car that we had seen in the hour or so that we had been out front.
"I wonder who that could be," said one of my friends.
"Doesn't look like Jehovah's Witnesses," I remarked as a white-haired, bearded white guy got out and slowly approached.
"What can I do for you?" I asked.
He was looking for the driver of the little car that had pulled into his yard. He wanted to let her know that he did not appreciate it, and wanted to make sure it did not happen again.
My friend, struggling to not look appalled, explained that she had been lost, apologized, and assured him that she would not repeat the indiscretion. To her credit (and our great loss), she did not say that she was disappointed, because she had been planning on driving through later on her way out. As it was, the trespassee looked somewhat taken aback at not having any way to further the fight, and awkwardly made his way back to his SUV
Okay, let's take a look at this.
These two guys were driving around looking for the car that had driven into their yard by mistake over an hour ago. Since we hadn't seen them drive by before, I can only imagine that they had been sitting somewhere about their property, maybe the owner of the property getting increasingly peeved at the nerve of some people to drive into his yard. Maybe he then went to the fridge and realized he had just drunk his last beer. So he enlisted his companion to come out with him to drive around the neighborhood as a spotter in order to locate the miscreant. Let me add that these are big front yards, her car was parked near the house and away from the street, in between our two other cars. It took some effort to locate.
Imagine the psychic -- and physical -- energy this whole endeavor took, not to mention the paranoid thought processes and the gas consumption.
My friend appeared to be rattled by this, I much less so. I have long held that if my neighbors were going to gun for me, with the fights we've had over loud and persistent racing of dirt bikes, and loud and persistent barking dogs, it would have happened by now.
Also, shortly before my friends got to my house, a quite large black snake made its way onto my porch, and after it quickly slithered away, came up a second time.
So I am no stranger to danger.
But as I thought about it later, given all the possible things that could be wrong in this dude's life, focusing on finding the person that drove into his yard to turn around could have reasonably been perceived as a red flag. And I do mean red. My friend suggested that part of his motivation may have been the Obama bumper sticker on her car. I wondered how someone of my age could have made out the words on the bumper sticker from that distance, but years of country living just may have blessed him with better eyesight than me.
I had been disappointed that during their visit my friends had not been entertained by a reappearance of the black snake, nor a peek at my cat who hid under the bed until minutes after they drove away. But they did get to witness an even more entertaining type of rural critter: the paranoid, angry redneck.
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Mortal Thoughts
My cat is stretched out somewhere, taking a nap. When I settle down to read this afternoon, she will join me on the arm of the chair and settle down... for a nap. She is luxurious in her ability to stretch out and luxuriate. What she has that I don't have is essential in its absence: she lacks awareness of her mortality. I admire that. Whether she is chasing down a catnip mouse or berating me for being gone too long or snacking on her dry food, she is always in the moment.
Our curse is pretty much our awareness of our mortality. Whether we make good or evil, use or waste it, it shadows us everywhere.
When Robin Williams died, it saddened me and everyone else but Rush Limbaugh, but as people were talking about the cause, it seemed that they missed the point. We all treasured his sweetness and his insanity, but what we all remembered in his passing was brilliance long past. From Mork to Good Morning, Vietnam, his energy was palpable. In later years he had moments of brilliance in smaller roles, like in August Rush (2007). As we all reminisced, though, we did not come up with anything of late that embodied the great Robin Williams. It surely must have been hard to be him.
I imagine that both fueled and self-medicated in his younger days, the genius was far more spontaneous, after all he hadn't yet had to strive to outdo himself. As he fought and won the battle against his addictions, I also imagine he had to learn to not be so spontaneous, to analyze and censor his impulses. While we were all waiting for another flash of the insane improvisations of the young Robin Williams, he also must have expected no less of himself, and yet knew the older man just wasn't the same person.
When we remember and regret the loss of Robin Williams, we don't think of his role in The Crazy Ones, where he looked like he wanted more than anything to break out and be insane again. We don't think of those later mediocre comedies where he played a disgruntled dad and recited lines. We think of him bouncing off the wall with Jonathan Winters; we remember Johnny Carson seeming to have to try to get him off the ceiling so the show could go on, all the while wiping away tears of laughter. We also remember that he could play someone quirky, odd, imperfect, one of us, only better.
And there we are. Humanity, mortality, aren't we all trying to be us, only better? Our goals may be confused, but when we fail it's because we are frustrated that we can't do better. We do crazy things trying to reach that end, everyone from the evil head of ISIS to Robin Williams. I am in there somewhere and so are you. Because we are basically all in a race to what turns out to be mortality.
As I wrestle with my mortality and my awareness of same, I think of Neil deGrasse Tyson, who seems to be absolutely tickled to be a teensy tiny part of the amazing universe even for the smallest amount of time. Then I think, yeah, but he's brilliant and famous and changing the world, and I'm not. And then I think of my cat, and that maybe I don't have to be remembered when I'm gone. That maybe I can sometimes just be alive and in the moment and that's good enough.
It's tricky, though. Robin Williams couldn't do it any longer. Maybe it will be easier for me because I am smaller.
Another Neil, Neil Diamond, wrote a song about it that was a compilation of famous names and ended,
Robin Williams was born two days after me, on July 21, 1951.
Our curse is pretty much our awareness of our mortality. Whether we make good or evil, use or waste it, it shadows us everywhere.
When Robin Williams died, it saddened me and everyone else but Rush Limbaugh, but as people were talking about the cause, it seemed that they missed the point. We all treasured his sweetness and his insanity, but what we all remembered in his passing was brilliance long past. From Mork to Good Morning, Vietnam, his energy was palpable. In later years he had moments of brilliance in smaller roles, like in August Rush (2007). As we all reminisced, though, we did not come up with anything of late that embodied the great Robin Williams. It surely must have been hard to be him.
I imagine that both fueled and self-medicated in his younger days, the genius was far more spontaneous, after all he hadn't yet had to strive to outdo himself. As he fought and won the battle against his addictions, I also imagine he had to learn to not be so spontaneous, to analyze and censor his impulses. While we were all waiting for another flash of the insane improvisations of the young Robin Williams, he also must have expected no less of himself, and yet knew the older man just wasn't the same person.
When we remember and regret the loss of Robin Williams, we don't think of his role in The Crazy Ones, where he looked like he wanted more than anything to break out and be insane again. We don't think of those later mediocre comedies where he played a disgruntled dad and recited lines. We think of him bouncing off the wall with Jonathan Winters; we remember Johnny Carson seeming to have to try to get him off the ceiling so the show could go on, all the while wiping away tears of laughter. We also remember that he could play someone quirky, odd, imperfect, one of us, only better.
And there we are. Humanity, mortality, aren't we all trying to be us, only better? Our goals may be confused, but when we fail it's because we are frustrated that we can't do better. We do crazy things trying to reach that end, everyone from the evil head of ISIS to Robin Williams. I am in there somewhere and so are you. Because we are basically all in a race to what turns out to be mortality.
As I wrestle with my mortality and my awareness of same, I think of Neil deGrasse Tyson, who seems to be absolutely tickled to be a teensy tiny part of the amazing universe even for the smallest amount of time. Then I think, yeah, but he's brilliant and famous and changing the world, and I'm not. And then I think of my cat, and that maybe I don't have to be remembered when I'm gone. That maybe I can sometimes just be alive and in the moment and that's good enough.
It's tricky, though. Robin Williams couldn't do it any longer. Maybe it will be easier for me because I am smaller.
Another Neil, Neil Diamond, wrote a song about it that was a compilation of famous names and ended,
And each one thereHas one thing shared:They have sweated beneath the same sun,Looked up in wonder at the same moon,And wept when it was all doneFor being done, too soon,For being done too soon.
Robin Williams was born two days after me, on July 21, 1951.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
The Perfect Relationship
It seems a lot of the reading I've been doing lately has had to do with mother-daughter relationships. Not on purpose; it's just happened that way. But it's true that I am also going through my own personal mother-daughter crisis, so I wonder just how incidental it really is.
For example, on top of one of my stacks of books was one called, "Please Excuse My Daughter," by Julie Klam. It's been sitting in that stack, being moved up and down in it, for a number of years. I own it because it was a book that I was forced to discard when I worked at the library because it had not circulated in awhile. I didn't take every book I discarded, just the ones that I thought I might regret not reading when they were gone. Lately I've been sick of political and serious reading and have been aiming for lighter fare, and of course there was the mother-daughter thing.
Julie Klam is very funny. She began her reluctant working career as a David Letterman intern. She is not at all like me, or my daughter; her mother is not at all like me, or my mother. However, at one point her mother comments on Rod Stewart as being, "'nice-looking but no Rudolph Valentino.'" About which Klam writes, "I remember feeling that fierce irritation only a daughter can feel for her mother."
Here's another book I read just last week: Roz Chast's new graphic memoir is entitled, "Can't we talk about something more PLEASANT?" The New York Times reviewer calls it, "by turns grim and absurd, deeply poignant and laugh-out-loud funny." Well, I'm here to tell you that I didn't laugh out loud that much. My guess is that the reviewer was relating as the adult child, and not as the parent of an adult child. The thing is, the child being annoyed at the parent thing comes across loud and clear. Which, given my current personal crisis, was a little too close to home to want to laugh out loud.
Anyway, while I am trying not to overinterpret, I have to admit that I am becoming more aware through my reading that daughters are critical of their mothers. Yes, it's unnecessary, and it's also cruel, but it seems that when I was a teen and young adult, as justified as I was, I did not invent the wheel. And neither has my daughter.
As a psychologist and a new mother, I truly believed that love -- in psychobabble, "unconditional positive regard" -- would get a mother and daughter through all hurtles. I did pretty much the opposite of everything my parents had done and I became one of those awful parents who think their children are the sun around which we move. As it turns out, my kids are both pretty okay, so I was probably half right. My daughter seems to have made it through the hurtles, but as far as I'm concerned, the jury is still out. On the other hand, if you asked her, she might say that I ruined her for life.
While one of the few things I had been absolutely sure of was my parenting, I am now second-guessing pretty much everything I ever did or said to or for my kids. And I wonder just how my mother dealt with those years in my twenties when I needed to prove to myself that I didn't need her. I have to give it to her, though. Without a degree in psychology, without the depth of reading that I have available, she was able to sum up the mother-daughter thing in one sentence:
"Someday your daughter will do to you what you've done to me."
Up until now I thought it had been a threat. I now realize that she was merely stating a fact of life.
For example, on top of one of my stacks of books was one called, "Please Excuse My Daughter," by Julie Klam. It's been sitting in that stack, being moved up and down in it, for a number of years. I own it because it was a book that I was forced to discard when I worked at the library because it had not circulated in awhile. I didn't take every book I discarded, just the ones that I thought I might regret not reading when they were gone. Lately I've been sick of political and serious reading and have been aiming for lighter fare, and of course there was the mother-daughter thing.
Julie Klam is very funny. She began her reluctant working career as a David Letterman intern. She is not at all like me, or my daughter; her mother is not at all like me, or my mother. However, at one point her mother comments on Rod Stewart as being, "'nice-looking but no Rudolph Valentino.'" About which Klam writes, "I remember feeling that fierce irritation only a daughter can feel for her mother."
Here's another book I read just last week: Roz Chast's new graphic memoir is entitled, "Can't we talk about something more PLEASANT?" The New York Times reviewer calls it, "by turns grim and absurd, deeply poignant and laugh-out-loud funny." Well, I'm here to tell you that I didn't laugh out loud that much. My guess is that the reviewer was relating as the adult child, and not as the parent of an adult child. The thing is, the child being annoyed at the parent thing comes across loud and clear. Which, given my current personal crisis, was a little too close to home to want to laugh out loud.
Anyway, while I am trying not to overinterpret, I have to admit that I am becoming more aware through my reading that daughters are critical of their mothers. Yes, it's unnecessary, and it's also cruel, but it seems that when I was a teen and young adult, as justified as I was, I did not invent the wheel. And neither has my daughter.
As a psychologist and a new mother, I truly believed that love -- in psychobabble, "unconditional positive regard" -- would get a mother and daughter through all hurtles. I did pretty much the opposite of everything my parents had done and I became one of those awful parents who think their children are the sun around which we move. As it turns out, my kids are both pretty okay, so I was probably half right. My daughter seems to have made it through the hurtles, but as far as I'm concerned, the jury is still out. On the other hand, if you asked her, she might say that I ruined her for life.
While one of the few things I had been absolutely sure of was my parenting, I am now second-guessing pretty much everything I ever did or said to or for my kids. And I wonder just how my mother dealt with those years in my twenties when I needed to prove to myself that I didn't need her. I have to give it to her, though. Without a degree in psychology, without the depth of reading that I have available, she was able to sum up the mother-daughter thing in one sentence:
"Someday your daughter will do to you what you've done to me."
Up until now I thought it had been a threat. I now realize that she was merely stating a fact of life.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Beach Snob
You probably wouldn't be surprised to learn that I hate crowds. Always have. And especially so at the beach. I am the person that sits as far away from people as possible, and then minutes later is joined by a family with kids slinging mud and frisbies and has a very loud radio supplying the unwanted beat for the day.
My dream when I was in my teens was to own a house on the beach. Of course, it would be a private beach. I'm also the person who, after I've moved into an area, thinks there should be a ban on building. I've thought about getting a "welcome" mat that says, "Leave Me Alone," but decided it would be reasonable to wait for someone to give me one as a gift.
When I was in my thirties, and had given up on owning a beach front home, I bought a couple of timeshare weeks, one at Gurney's Inn on Montauk Beach and the other at Peppertree, Atlantic Beach. Timeshares have less resale value than cars, so when I moved south, I gave back my Long Island week to the management company, who appeared to be going bankrupt anyway. I continued to use, or exchange, or rent out, my North Carolina week. When I discovered I could occasionally find really affordable timeshare week rentals right on the beach I was in heaven. I've learned to shop cautiously, and with the internet it's pretty easy to get a good idea of what you're signing up for.
I've been wanting to get back to the Gulf Coast of Florida for years. Mostly it's unaffordable. So when I saw a week for $600 I did my research, agonized for a couple of hours, and then went for it. Had I thought a few minutes longer, I would have asked myself if I really wanted to go to Fort Myers Beach in August.
It's hot. But it's a small resort, not too fancy but with anything I might need (except cell service), and it's right on the beach. I'm told I have the best unit in the place, and I believe it. It's a one-bedroom apartment apart from the main building, with a deck, that overlooks a beautiful and quiet piece of beach. And the waters of the Gulf Coast are beautiful. Perfect for a coward like me, no waves. This time of year, the water is slightly cooler than the 90 degree air temp. The sand is blindingly white and ground fine. And it's always possible to find tiny, perfectly formed shells.
Yesterday, I took a ten-minute walk on the beach to the main part of town, where there is public beach access. It was Labor Day, and people were pretty packed in. I am not proud to say I was horrified. But it did occur to me that the problem was too little beach for too many people. The kids were having a blast. Dogs had been pretty much kept away during regular beach hours. And there was actually very little garbage strewn around.
The worst thing about people using beaches is what goes on in the water. As in water "sports." While it's quieter today, the day after Labor Day, I still watched in horrified amazement as a progression of a dozen or more of what I guess are called jet skis or waverunners raced across the water. Larger boats speed past, oblivious to anyone's need for pleasure but their own. Noise and fuel pollute air and water for an afternoon's cheap thrills.
I thought a bit about Carl Hiaasen over this Labor Day weekend, when this small beach town was overrun by tourists. There is the overdevelopment. Then there is the willingness to let anyone willing to pay for the pleasure out to tear up the waters and the birds and sea creatures trying to live peacefully within. How far should we be allowed to go to have fun? Apparently it is as far as we are willing to pay.
Today in front of my space it is relatively quiet. I bitched about the smallish motorboat that had to park itself right in front of "my" private beach. The parade of waverunner thingies was far more upsetting. But I'm happy that the weekend is over and the summer is over and it's early yet for winter adventurers. Right now it's just a handful of us older folk and a few couples with pre-school age children. The mornings are wonderful.
I have been so thrilled to be able to walk into the water, and swim about without fear of being hit by a wave. But then I went out to cool down a little and swim around, and felt these small slippery things swimming around with me. Of course they were probably just a school of those tiny fish. And I wasn't going to let my fears force me out of the water.
When I did go back to the chair I had sitting right at the water's edge I noticed a jellyfish. And a few feet away, another jellyfish. Hmm. I don't plan on being scared out of the water, but as I watch from my apartment today, I will take note of anybody who runs screaming out of the water. So far, the only noises are coming from the motorcraft.
My dream when I was in my teens was to own a house on the beach. Of course, it would be a private beach. I'm also the person who, after I've moved into an area, thinks there should be a ban on building. I've thought about getting a "welcome" mat that says, "Leave Me Alone," but decided it would be reasonable to wait for someone to give me one as a gift.
When I was in my thirties, and had given up on owning a beach front home, I bought a couple of timeshare weeks, one at Gurney's Inn on Montauk Beach and the other at Peppertree, Atlantic Beach. Timeshares have less resale value than cars, so when I moved south, I gave back my Long Island week to the management company, who appeared to be going bankrupt anyway. I continued to use, or exchange, or rent out, my North Carolina week. When I discovered I could occasionally find really affordable timeshare week rentals right on the beach I was in heaven. I've learned to shop cautiously, and with the internet it's pretty easy to get a good idea of what you're signing up for.
I've been wanting to get back to the Gulf Coast of Florida for years. Mostly it's unaffordable. So when I saw a week for $600 I did my research, agonized for a couple of hours, and then went for it. Had I thought a few minutes longer, I would have asked myself if I really wanted to go to Fort Myers Beach in August.
It's hot. But it's a small resort, not too fancy but with anything I might need (except cell service), and it's right on the beach. I'm told I have the best unit in the place, and I believe it. It's a one-bedroom apartment apart from the main building, with a deck, that overlooks a beautiful and quiet piece of beach. And the waters of the Gulf Coast are beautiful. Perfect for a coward like me, no waves. This time of year, the water is slightly cooler than the 90 degree air temp. The sand is blindingly white and ground fine. And it's always possible to find tiny, perfectly formed shells.
Yesterday, I took a ten-minute walk on the beach to the main part of town, where there is public beach access. It was Labor Day, and people were pretty packed in. I am not proud to say I was horrified. But it did occur to me that the problem was too little beach for too many people. The kids were having a blast. Dogs had been pretty much kept away during regular beach hours. And there was actually very little garbage strewn around.
The worst thing about people using beaches is what goes on in the water. As in water "sports." While it's quieter today, the day after Labor Day, I still watched in horrified amazement as a progression of a dozen or more of what I guess are called jet skis or waverunners raced across the water. Larger boats speed past, oblivious to anyone's need for pleasure but their own. Noise and fuel pollute air and water for an afternoon's cheap thrills.
I thought a bit about Carl Hiaasen over this Labor Day weekend, when this small beach town was overrun by tourists. There is the overdevelopment. Then there is the willingness to let anyone willing to pay for the pleasure out to tear up the waters and the birds and sea creatures trying to live peacefully within. How far should we be allowed to go to have fun? Apparently it is as far as we are willing to pay.
Today in front of my space it is relatively quiet. I bitched about the smallish motorboat that had to park itself right in front of "my" private beach. The parade of waverunner thingies was far more upsetting. But I'm happy that the weekend is over and the summer is over and it's early yet for winter adventurers. Right now it's just a handful of us older folk and a few couples with pre-school age children. The mornings are wonderful.
I have been so thrilled to be able to walk into the water, and swim about without fear of being hit by a wave. But then I went out to cool down a little and swim around, and felt these small slippery things swimming around with me. Of course they were probably just a school of those tiny fish. And I wasn't going to let my fears force me out of the water.
When I did go back to the chair I had sitting right at the water's edge I noticed a jellyfish. And a few feet away, another jellyfish. Hmm. I don't plan on being scared out of the water, but as I watch from my apartment today, I will take note of anybody who runs screaming out of the water. So far, the only noises are coming from the motorcraft.
Saturday, August 9, 2014
When the Rage Doesn't Fall Far from the Tree
Somewhere when I was about twenty-seven, I stopped speaking to my mother. I had moved away from Rhode Island to Maryland a year or so earlier, and had a visit from my two sisters, but now I wanted my youngest sister to visit and my mother said no.
We did that in my family. My father was the model for not-speaking. He tended to only speak to one of my mother's many brothers and sisters at a time, for what I understood to be some very strange reasons. From about the time I turned, oh, thirteen, we would "have a fight," meaning that my father would yell at me for something, and we would not speak to each other for several months, sometimes up to six, which would correlate to the time between my birthday and Christmas. We tended to start speaking again around events. Again, this is my recollection, which is faulty. Ask my daughter.
Because she has carried on the tradition, and in a most noble way. And I have fought it, and fought it, and fought it. Since she was about thirteen, I think, shortly after we moved from Long Island to Charleston, leaving her father and her friends behind, she began to fly into rages at me. Much like I would do to my mother when I was her age. Unlike my father, my mother would not fight back; I wasn't scared of her. So I would let my temper fly. I had reason to be angry, my father was rigid and cruel, my mother refused to stand up to him. This left me isolated from friends, and depressed.
My daughter's rage came from, well, apparently I still don't have a handle on it, because she rages on. We've had what I thought were years when we were getting closer, dotted with periods when she would get distant. I would try to ignore what was obviously going on, get angry when she would not come home, be hurt when she was able to effortlessly go months without talking to me, try to talk to her about what was going on. And all the while ignoring her crazy, insane rage that was on fire against me.
Recently the coldness has become so obvious, she has been ignoring me to the point that I could no longer pretend nothing was going on, and I decided I was so miserable I had to confront it. What I ended up confronting, to my amazement, was that same rage from her teenage years. That rage I felt toward my mother when I was my daughter's age. And it's left me stunned.
Back when I began writing "Ruminations..." I was letting it all hang out. Not so much ranting against my kids, but ranting against being abandoned by my kids. Then a few people began to read it, and I decided it wasn't right to be so personal, not fair to the readers, nor to my family. I am writing this now (to be published at a later time and after a period of consideration) because this is the reality of my life, maybe the most important thing that is happening to me.
The loss of a child is an unspeakable loss. And yet that is what I am wrestling with right now. Her rage is unapproachable, unstoppable. Other than no longer being me, I wouldn't have any idea how to change it. And I have over the years even tried to not be me, to not speak my mind, to pretend everything was fine. It was a fear of those teenage years (mine and hers), of the awful, untrue things that were said in those rages.
But to ignore her anger at this point is to ignore my own existence, and I couldn't do that. She couldn't ignore it either, it was seeping into our "normal" conversations. Neither of us are capable of resolving it, not from this distance, any better than we could when we lived together.
I don't remember how long I went without speaking to my mother. It seemed like years, but couldn't have been. Because when she was sixty and I was not that much more than twenty-seven, I got a call from my youngest sister saying that my mother was in the hospital, having a triple bypass. Of course we reconciled, and I was able to be closer to her for three years, until she died. When she was sixty-three, which happens to be the age I just turned.
You can't make someone aware of how near we all are to losing each other forever. For me I was able to come to that awareness before it was too late. Which makes what we are going through now, me and my daughter, all that more poignant.
The loss of a child is an unspeakable loss. This is a loss I just can't accept, and so I will speak about it, and hope it isn't so.
We did that in my family. My father was the model for not-speaking. He tended to only speak to one of my mother's many brothers and sisters at a time, for what I understood to be some very strange reasons. From about the time I turned, oh, thirteen, we would "have a fight," meaning that my father would yell at me for something, and we would not speak to each other for several months, sometimes up to six, which would correlate to the time between my birthday and Christmas. We tended to start speaking again around events. Again, this is my recollection, which is faulty. Ask my daughter.
Because she has carried on the tradition, and in a most noble way. And I have fought it, and fought it, and fought it. Since she was about thirteen, I think, shortly after we moved from Long Island to Charleston, leaving her father and her friends behind, she began to fly into rages at me. Much like I would do to my mother when I was her age. Unlike my father, my mother would not fight back; I wasn't scared of her. So I would let my temper fly. I had reason to be angry, my father was rigid and cruel, my mother refused to stand up to him. This left me isolated from friends, and depressed.
My daughter's rage came from, well, apparently I still don't have a handle on it, because she rages on. We've had what I thought were years when we were getting closer, dotted with periods when she would get distant. I would try to ignore what was obviously going on, get angry when she would not come home, be hurt when she was able to effortlessly go months without talking to me, try to talk to her about what was going on. And all the while ignoring her crazy, insane rage that was on fire against me.
Recently the coldness has become so obvious, she has been ignoring me to the point that I could no longer pretend nothing was going on, and I decided I was so miserable I had to confront it. What I ended up confronting, to my amazement, was that same rage from her teenage years. That rage I felt toward my mother when I was my daughter's age. And it's left me stunned.
Back when I began writing "Ruminations..." I was letting it all hang out. Not so much ranting against my kids, but ranting against being abandoned by my kids. Then a few people began to read it, and I decided it wasn't right to be so personal, not fair to the readers, nor to my family. I am writing this now (to be published at a later time and after a period of consideration) because this is the reality of my life, maybe the most important thing that is happening to me.
The loss of a child is an unspeakable loss. And yet that is what I am wrestling with right now. Her rage is unapproachable, unstoppable. Other than no longer being me, I wouldn't have any idea how to change it. And I have over the years even tried to not be me, to not speak my mind, to pretend everything was fine. It was a fear of those teenage years (mine and hers), of the awful, untrue things that were said in those rages.
But to ignore her anger at this point is to ignore my own existence, and I couldn't do that. She couldn't ignore it either, it was seeping into our "normal" conversations. Neither of us are capable of resolving it, not from this distance, any better than we could when we lived together.
I don't remember how long I went without speaking to my mother. It seemed like years, but couldn't have been. Because when she was sixty and I was not that much more than twenty-seven, I got a call from my youngest sister saying that my mother was in the hospital, having a triple bypass. Of course we reconciled, and I was able to be closer to her for three years, until she died. When she was sixty-three, which happens to be the age I just turned.
You can't make someone aware of how near we all are to losing each other forever. For me I was able to come to that awareness before it was too late. Which makes what we are going through now, me and my daughter, all that more poignant.
The loss of a child is an unspeakable loss. This is a loss I just can't accept, and so I will speak about it, and hope it isn't so.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Resorting to Vacation
I have a bad attitude about being home these days. Being home means taking care of stuff. It means mowing the damned lawn, which in a season with plenty of rain and just enough sweltering heat and sun like we have this year you can pretty much watch it grow. And then mow it again. And to boot, I ran my mower over a bit of concrete early in the season and have had to deal with whatever it is that has made my blade come loose. It's been fine for awhile, but still, it's my job to anticipate it coming loose again and to worry about it until it does, or until November, whichever comes first.
And then there are the damned trees. I am no fan of trees, unless they are ornamental and I have chosen to share my yard with them. So sue me. But the ornamentals get diseases and either die or continue to live but taunt me with their fungal growth. I grew mimosas from seeds that I had taken from the bridge at Wadmalaw Island when I first moved here, because I think flowering mimosas are the most glorious sight ever, even better than the drink. I was tickled that they grew so abundantly here in the south, and watched the tree that I had apparently planted in the perfect spot as it grew and flowered and grew and flowered for years, until one year it died. It made me watch it die, as one branch wilted, and I cut it off, and then another wilted and I cut that one off, until finally I realized it was always going to be one step ahead of me, and I just let it go, which I imagine it did with a sigh of relief. It was heartbreaking.
But the oaks are just another whole damn matter. I don't care what kind of oak it is, I'm disgusted with all of them, even the one they worship down here, the "live" oak (as opposed to what, the "dead" oak?). They do die, every year, and at the time of year that things are supposed to be coming alive. And when they do this dastardly transition from life to death to life again, they spit all kinds of crap onto the earth, which includes my car and my pool.
And don't get me started on the "water oak." I would say they are the worst of the weeds, but there is so much competition down here. I have a few ornamentals by the road that are trying hard to survive, but water oaks come up right in the same spot, and I have to cut them back twice a year, which of course I don't, because I refuse to be "Yardwork 'R' Us" in whatever years I have left.
The alternative being to sit on my porch with a good book and get aggravated because I should be: weeding, cutting, mowing. And cleaning the algae off the sides of my house, vacuuming my pool, sealing the deck, painting the porch... and I haven't even gotten to housecleaning yet.
I just noticed yesterday that my car, with 174,000 miles on it, appears to be peeling, like the dead skin off a sunburn. I'd been hoping to settle for just maintaining the working parts of it; as with my philosophy about myself, I'm more concerned with function than cosmetics.
Outside my window, right now, there is a thunderstorm. But I'm not at home, so I don't have to worry about losing power. The resort has wifi and cell reception, so for a week anyway I don't have to deal with AT&T. The biggest crisis I have had this week is that last night I didn't feel like going out to get dinner and I hadn't bought anything to cook, so I popped a bag of popcorn -- provided by the resort -- and ate some shrimp I had bought and boiled on Monday. I was proud of the way I handled the crisis, but believe me, that's not happening again soon. I made a run for cheese, olives and crackers this afternoon (no, still not going to cook).
This was an unexpected vacation, as I was unable to rent out my August timeshare this year. So this vacation week was sandwiched between my annual Rhode Island family birthday reunion / beach fest (one person can make a fest) and an impulsive redweek.com purchase of a very reasonably priced week at Fort Myers Beach at the end of August.
It felt excessive. Not only do I tend to feel guilty about going away too much, I have a very dear friend who responds to my informing her that I am going on vacation by asking, "Vacation from what?"
But it's worked out so well that I might even do it again next summer. And I'm thinking about actually taking two weeks to meander up the coast to Rhode Island in the winter, for Christmas, because I am feeling so adventurous.
I worry about what fires I will have to put out when I get home. Fortunately, there have not as yet been fires, but there are occasionally things that have broken that need tending. And the grass needs mowing. Again. But at least I haven't had to watch it.
And then there are the damned trees. I am no fan of trees, unless they are ornamental and I have chosen to share my yard with them. So sue me. But the ornamentals get diseases and either die or continue to live but taunt me with their fungal growth. I grew mimosas from seeds that I had taken from the bridge at Wadmalaw Island when I first moved here, because I think flowering mimosas are the most glorious sight ever, even better than the drink. I was tickled that they grew so abundantly here in the south, and watched the tree that I had apparently planted in the perfect spot as it grew and flowered and grew and flowered for years, until one year it died. It made me watch it die, as one branch wilted, and I cut it off, and then another wilted and I cut that one off, until finally I realized it was always going to be one step ahead of me, and I just let it go, which I imagine it did with a sigh of relief. It was heartbreaking.
But the oaks are just another whole damn matter. I don't care what kind of oak it is, I'm disgusted with all of them, even the one they worship down here, the "live" oak (as opposed to what, the "dead" oak?). They do die, every year, and at the time of year that things are supposed to be coming alive. And when they do this dastardly transition from life to death to life again, they spit all kinds of crap onto the earth, which includes my car and my pool.
And don't get me started on the "water oak." I would say they are the worst of the weeds, but there is so much competition down here. I have a few ornamentals by the road that are trying hard to survive, but water oaks come up right in the same spot, and I have to cut them back twice a year, which of course I don't, because I refuse to be "Yardwork 'R' Us" in whatever years I have left.
The alternative being to sit on my porch with a good book and get aggravated because I should be: weeding, cutting, mowing. And cleaning the algae off the sides of my house, vacuuming my pool, sealing the deck, painting the porch... and I haven't even gotten to housecleaning yet.
I just noticed yesterday that my car, with 174,000 miles on it, appears to be peeling, like the dead skin off a sunburn. I'd been hoping to settle for just maintaining the working parts of it; as with my philosophy about myself, I'm more concerned with function than cosmetics.
Outside my window, right now, there is a thunderstorm. But I'm not at home, so I don't have to worry about losing power. The resort has wifi and cell reception, so for a week anyway I don't have to deal with AT&T. The biggest crisis I have had this week is that last night I didn't feel like going out to get dinner and I hadn't bought anything to cook, so I popped a bag of popcorn -- provided by the resort -- and ate some shrimp I had bought and boiled on Monday. I was proud of the way I handled the crisis, but believe me, that's not happening again soon. I made a run for cheese, olives and crackers this afternoon (no, still not going to cook).
This was an unexpected vacation, as I was unable to rent out my August timeshare this year. So this vacation week was sandwiched between my annual Rhode Island family birthday reunion / beach fest (one person can make a fest) and an impulsive redweek.com purchase of a very reasonably priced week at Fort Myers Beach at the end of August.
It felt excessive. Not only do I tend to feel guilty about going away too much, I have a very dear friend who responds to my informing her that I am going on vacation by asking, "Vacation from what?"
But it's worked out so well that I might even do it again next summer. And I'm thinking about actually taking two weeks to meander up the coast to Rhode Island in the winter, for Christmas, because I am feeling so adventurous.
I worry about what fires I will have to put out when I get home. Fortunately, there have not as yet been fires, but there are occasionally things that have broken that need tending. And the grass needs mowing. Again. But at least I haven't had to watch it.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
My Wild Kingdom
This is the way we mow our lawns out here in the boonies: we wait until the grass gets high, then goes to seed, and then we wait to see who blinks first. After one lawn gets mowed, a day or two goes by and another victim gives in, until we all have somewhat newly mowed lawns. Except for my neighbor who lives across the street and mows the lawn every week. We mostly ignore him.
I mowed my front lawn four or five weeks ago. For a couple of weeks I felt pretty good because it had been mowed. Then for a week or so I just ignored it. Then it got to bothering me, so I've been trying to work myself up to the two-hour task for a few days. Yesterday I was relieved to see that it really, really looked like rain, so I decided not to mow. I am going away for ten days in the middle of July, and if I put off mowing just a little longer, I won't have to do it again till I get back. So I was at the point where I'd like to get it over with, but I could wait. Then, around noon, the sun came out smiling.
I don't have a drink till five, and I don't do yard work after noon. This makes for a fairly stress-free retirement.
So today I planned on mowing. Even though the morning came up cloudy. I figured it had to be a ruse, like yesterday.
Around ten, I went out to the shed and opened the door.
I've lived out here in the rural south for over fifteen years now. I'm more scared of things breaking down and having to fix them than of running into critters. I've run the lawn mower over a nest of ground-wasps and was covered in stings:
To continue. I opened the shed and there lying on top of the door was a snake.
I considered carefully closing the door and returning to the house. Then I thought about the very long grass. And then I decided that if I just walked away, I would never want to open that door again, just in case that snake was still lying there, waiting.
I mowed my front lawn four or five weeks ago. For a couple of weeks I felt pretty good because it had been mowed. Then for a week or so I just ignored it. Then it got to bothering me, so I've been trying to work myself up to the two-hour task for a few days. Yesterday I was relieved to see that it really, really looked like rain, so I decided not to mow. I am going away for ten days in the middle of July, and if I put off mowing just a little longer, I won't have to do it again till I get back. So I was at the point where I'd like to get it over with, but I could wait. Then, around noon, the sun came out smiling.
I don't have a drink till five, and I don't do yard work after noon. This makes for a fairly stress-free retirement.
So today I planned on mowing. Even though the morning came up cloudy. I figured it had to be a ruse, like yesterday.
Around ten, I went out to the shed and opened the door.
I've lived out here in the rural south for over fifteen years now. I'm more scared of things breaking down and having to fix them than of running into critters. I've run the lawn mower over a nest of ground-wasps and was covered in stings:
 |
| This is what it looked like, except I have more hair. |
Currently, there is a spider that persists in building an elaborate web that attaches to my blueberry bushes. Every day or two when I go out to pick berries, I take a twig and tear off the web. I usually leaves webs intact, respecting the amount of labor involved, but not if it interferes with something essential, like berry-picking. Undaunted the little critter gets right back to work, and I end up destroying yet another web a couple of days' later. It may be my imagination, but lately the effort has seemed just a bit less enthusiastic. I hope when berry-picking is over my friend will not have given up and will make one last and more lasting attempt.
Given that, I don't just stick my hand in dark corners of my shed.
My favorite critter story is the afternoon that a pack of dogs chased a bobcat onto my porch, where it sat and watched me watch it for five hours, until Animal Control came. After sending the bobcat off for parts unknown:
Fairly relieved Animal Control Officer: "So, if you have any more trouble, if it, uh, comes back, just give us a call."
Me: "And you'll come out and toss another glass of water at it?"
To continue. I opened the shed and there lying on top of the door was a snake.
I considered carefully closing the door and returning to the house. Then I thought about the very long grass. And then I decided that if I just walked away, I would never want to open that door again, just in case that snake was still lying there, waiting.
I walked carefully around the door to the side of the shed, carefully got hold of the hose, turned off the nozzle, turned on the faucet, and went round to the door, never taking my eyes off the snake, lest it take off and leave me not knowing where it might be hiding. But it was still there, obviously quite comfortable.
I opened the nozzle and then pointed it at the snake. For several seconds it barely moved, and then I realized that it had opened its mouth so that it could get the full stream. I imagined it must be thirsty. Or was just enjoying a long unexpected shower. After a surprisingly long time, it began to move toward the shed, and I stopped it with the water. Then it wound around itself, so that it looked like it might have been two snakes. Then it went back to position #1. This went on for quite a few minutes. As long as it didn't seem interested in leaping the few feet it would take to reach me, I was okay with that.
Finally it decided to escape via the roof.
I'm not used to snakes that are not at ground level. There are bunches of new cats in the neighborhood lately, and I'm thinking the snakes have had to find places that are a bit more challenging to the feline stalker. We've all heard stories about snakes that hide in trees and fall onto people as they walk past. So I would have been happier if my friend had slithered down the door of the shed and away into the shrubbery. But I figured that this was probably the best it was going to get. Unlikely that it would come back for me. And the damned lawn was not going to mow itself.
So I cautiously got the mower out of the shed. And now I have a nicely mowed lawn that I can enjoy for a couple of weeks, ignore for a couple more, and then eventually get around to mowing again. I'm hoping the snake will have found a new home by then.
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