when he was good he was very very good

I promised to tell you about our base cherry blossom festival, but something more important has come up. So let me just say there were lots of people, of course lots of flowers, food, music, hula dancers etc. Here's a picture.

Now, today I was sitting outside the post office eating my lunch when a woman and her son walked by. They were obviously in the midst of an argument.

"Where are you going?" the mother asked.

"Where do you think." the boy said.

"I want you to wait. How will I find you." the mother said.

"Just call me."

"No."

"I'm not following you around all day." the boy said.

"No," said the mother, "I'm going to follow you."

By this point I of course wanted to slap the child. He was maybe 13 or 14 a hard age for parents and children everywhere. The mother was Asian with an accent that softened the edges of her words even when she was angry. I have to wonder if ethnicity had any effect on the argument. Traditionally, boys and men rule Asian households. The mother is expected to pay even her young son a certain amount of respect. Whether this affected the argument or didn't, I still wanted to slap the little brat.

A few seconds later they came into view again. The boy was headed the opposite direction.

"Where are you going." The mother said.

"Where do you think," said the boy.

"I can't do anything, today." the mother said. "Where are you going."

"I'll meet you where we always meet."

The mother turned around defeated and obviously fuming. Much as I wanted to slap the kid and tell him to watch his mouth. I also wanted to comfort the mother.

"It will get better." I wanted to tell her. "Teenagers are hard. But someday he'll grow up and realize how much you mean to him."

Of course, I didn't say this. I didn't say anything. I just balled up my sandwich wrapper and threw it away. Then I went into the post office to collect the package my own mother had sent from the other side of the planet.

I couldn't say anything to them, but I can say this to you. Children, be good to your parents. You don't know yet how much they will mean to you.

Even if you're a grown up, be good to them, you won't have them forever.

I leave you today with a quote from Lois McMaster Bujold, "You don't pay back your parents. You can't. The debt you owe them gets collected by your children, who hand it down in turn. It's a sort of entailment. Or if you don't have children of the body, it's left as a debt to your common humanity. Or to your God, if you possess or are possessed by one.