Another Headstone

I want to shine some "lyte" on rites of passage. Our modern society is bereft of rites of passage. There just aren't that many activities that adults do that young people do not have access to. The lines between childhood and adulthood have become increasingly blurred.

Is that a good thing? I am not sure. Children are becoming jaded, miniature adults, complete with their cell phones. Teenagers set the bar for what's hot and what's not. I think part of the appeal of the show "Mad Men" is that back then, it was cool to be an adult. Age was admired, and the rights and responsibilities of adults were significantly different from children.

But now it is all about the young. You aren't even allowed to look your age. I am as guilty as the next, I still shop primarily in the junior section, not misses. But I draw the line at Botox or Juviderm, or other artificial means of rejuvenation. I have my standards.

Back to rites of passage. One rite is still going strong here in the good, ole USA. You still have wait until you're sixteen (and in some states, eighteen) to drive. Both of my kids got their permits over the last weekends, and it suddenly hit home that they are growing up......and away.

I have said it before, parenting is one long goodbye. But the day you stop carting your kids around is the one of hardest goodbyes of all. Not only are you facing the undeniable fact that you are becoming largely superfluous in your children's lives, but that they now have the means and the desire to go out into the world without you.

And it is a scary world.

All You Need Is

In honor of Valentine's Day, I want to shine some "lyte" on love. Love is truly a universal topic. Kind of like body fat but with a lot more angst involved. Love has been the theme of countless books, movies, and songs. We yearn for it, we scorn it, we can't live without it. We analyze it, we criticize it, and we demonize it.

Love can make us better versions of ourselves or drive to lengths we didn't know we were capable of. It can make sane people crazy and crazy people crazier. Love is a noun and a verb all at the same time. We make it, we break it, but we just can't shake it.

I have been enormously lucky in love. That luck has been 28 years in the making, but I feel lucky just the same. I have the delight and honor to married to someone I not only love, but actually like and admire. There were times when I couldn't stand the way he breathed, but we got through that. We have grown up together and if we are fortunate, we will grow old together.

But I have been lucky not just in romantic love, but the other kinds too. I am awash in love. My children, my family, my friends, all surround me in the ether of love. My cup truly runneth over. So today, the most love-filled day of the year, I want to recognize all the people that I love and that manage to love me. Thank you.