Parenting...

Learning things is always a joy. There is another joy that comes from accumulating knowledge. This pleasure explodes out of connected dots and the picture you now see as whole. Triteness aside, this is the reveal moment in the film. This is when you realize that Bruce Willis is dead in The Sixth Sense. This is that feeling of WOW when you finally understand The Matrix. Here's a picture of Parents.

My Mother did a fantastic job. (pause for Mom to collect herself)

Here's what I mean. Something inside me at a young age, adults call it curiosity, drove me to learn things on my own. I was not overtly adventurous, but would try things, especially when I was told not to. Yes, this is the most common characteristic of every child. All the parents are in agreement, their kids are little explorers too. If you think about kids, you think about uncensored desire to explore your world. You think about the joy of discovery, your first swim, your first ice cream, your first whatever. You remember happy, do you not?

Well, I was no different then. I was just like every other kid that comes here, hungry for knowledge and thirsty for discovery. So when I say that my Mom did a fantastic job, I am reveling in her allowance of freedom. My freedom. She recognized, without instruction, that a child will only learn through experience. Sometimes she did this out of blissful, childlike impulse and sometimes she was just distracted. Either way, I was the type of kid that needed to learn on his own. Not alone, but through experience.

I was rarely good at taking someone's word for something. If the concept seemed illogical or too unbelievable, I would save my opinion until I had more information with which to analyze. This attitude was fostered by my Mother because she was on a journey of learning for herself as well. She was watching and learning how to be a mother. She learned early on that sacrifice would be made if her children could benefit. Even if the benefit would not be seen for years to come. She also learned that to block the path of the locomotive, that all children are from birth, would not be tolerated. Even if that person blocking was their Dad. Thanks Mom for the freedom to explore on my own, I am much wiser and stronger today because of it.

Now, please know that I am not judging my Father negatively. I am merely expressing some opinions, long overdue opinions. My Father was just as brilliant a Man as a Dad should be. He provided for us and gave up his person for us to be successful in life. Along this journey of his, he learned many things about life, people, family, suffering, and protection. He saw all, and believe me when I say ALL, the worldly pitfalls that awaited his first born son. This changed him to protect mode. Completely understandable and even expected.

So I have a gigantic thanks for my Dad, who had sense enough to at least keep us alive, out of jail, and fighting long enough to realize just how much he had helped us. We can now appreciate the sacrifices and sometimes overly protective attitudes. I can appreciate this. After all, my Dad is on a journey of learning just like me...and you.

My Dad gave us real world knowledge and we just didn't quite grasp that when we were young. You see, we wanted to be free to learn, especially me. I was never going to take his word as complete truth and I think this threatened him. At least to the extent that he had already lived some of the things we going through. The problem was, I could not accept "his" experience as enough for me to know something. I needed to experience them for myself and then I could either agree with my Father or not. After all, this is an individual journey with experiences only the individual can comprehend.

With all this growing inside my head, I have begun to notice that certain people are at much different places on the journey of self enlightenment. These people may be much older physically, but they are still a child in their soul. My parents may be older than me, but they truly are not. Ask either one if they believe that I was born an old man. I already know their answer.

So thanks to my parents. They offered a unique balance of freedom and discipline. Balance. Thank you. Knowing you in this way, seeing you like this, helps me understand love as a factor of knowledge. It helps me to see your souls and that is where the light resides.

Please give kids a chance. They are only as smart as their parents allow them to be.

Ciao from the coconut...