Blog 2456 – 07.16.2022

Milestones versus Millstones

After writing this blog I will be just four blogs away from an important milestone in my writing career. I will have arrived at one quarter of the distance to my goal of writing 10,000 blogs. I may not live long enough to achieve my end goal, but I will nevertheless give it my best shot. With each blog I write I attempt to make it worth while to anyone who chooses to invest a few minutes reading.

Jesus once said referring to those who hurt children, “It would be better that a millstone was hung about their necks and they were cast into the sea than that they should hurt one of these little ones.” Even the best most loving parents unintentionally hurt and disappoint their children. Even non-religious parents pray, “Please don’t let me screw them up.”

One of my favorite Paul Simon songs has him singing to his son about how he met the boy’s mom. There is a part in the song where poet Paul says, “You are the burden of my generation. I sure do love you. let’s get that straight.”

I, as young man, once heard a preacher say to fathers, “The best thing that you can do for your children is to love their mother.” I so agree, for watching loving parents celebrate milestones in their relationship is a joy to children. While hearing their parents always warring is a millstone around their young necks that not only stunts their growth, but that will eventually drown them unless love frees them from that excess baggage.

One of my favorite novelists is the late Pat Conroy. All his books are set in his beloved South Carolina and are full of characters based on his family. In his best seller, Prince of Tides, he says of his battling parents, “In their war with each the only prisoners my parents took were their children.”

Mothers and fathers be good to your children for they will love like you do.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ADRSdqsoboBKnx-XaLu6VjwMa0AXhjmo/view?usp=drivesdk

That Was Your Mother