We Interrupt the Knitting

Anyone whose been on either end of the parent equation knows that its only constants are its vicissitudes. We are never the children we expected to be. We are never the parents we meant to be. We never have the children we thought we'd have. Parenthood is an unequivocal blessing and a mixed damnation.

John has made me particularly aware of this this year, from the missing honor roll because he didn't take enough Accelerated Reader tests, to the hair down to his shoulders, to the blowing off of 4 math assignments. Teachers and friends keep assuring me that it is all part of being a 12 year old boy. It's a year of metamorphosis. It's the pushing of the envelope year. The exploration of limits year. The "do they really mean what they say?" year.

Case is point is what we thought was going on when John decided to enter the Latin Olympics here, and what was really going on. Suffice to say, John did not participate. His parents withdrew him the day of the event. In addition, we imposed a Herculean Task. To wit: create the art project he was supposed to have done and finish it time for the end of year Latin Gala and Play. I would undertake the technical aspects, he had to do the creative bit.

I don't think he realized we were serious.

The Latin Gala and Play is tonight. I have spent my knitting time scanning the images in and devising a workable comic book format.

John has produced 38 illustrated panels, in Latin, of the adventures of Hercules and the Cretan Bull.
I don't think I realized he was serious.