Jun 10, 2014
Writing 101, Day Seven: Give and Take
Focus today’s post on the contrast between two things. The twist? Write the post in the form of a dialogue.
Mom in her 50’s.
“No,” she said.
“But why, Ma? Isn’t life worth it?”
“Not anymore. I know it’s difficult to fathom, but there comes a tipping point.”
“Mom, I … please …really?”
“Taking off those rosy glasses you love so will help. You can grasp the concept of death intellectually, and emotionally, but I wonder how well any of us get it until the turn is ours.”
I sat still as the conversation’s gravitas weighed me down. I did get it intellectually and emotionally. In those realms the time had come. But a part of me was screaming for her to stay. Perhaps it was the young me, that could never imagine life without her. Years later the screams have quieted but there remains that piece of me that will always want her back. On earth. Beside me.
I miss you, Mom.
Wendy Karasin - Musings of a Boomer 
Oh, how well I know this feeling. For so many years, we see our parents as invincible…and having to face that fact that they’re not makes us acknowledge our own impermanence. If that isn’t scary I don’t know what it….
Yes. That’s the clincher. Seeing our parents’ impermanence (because, weren’t they, in some form, always there?) makes our own come into sharp focus. Changes everything…
Beautifully wrought…evokes memory, hurts the heart and touches my soul..
Love your words, poetic. And thank you, the words touched my soul – nice to know they reach across the divide.
You write on this subject more meaningfully than anyone I’ve ever read. “The tipping point.” I really have no words.
PS – – love both photos you posted (brought tears) and did anyone ever say your beautiful mom reminded them of Ann Ramano character on One Day at a Time? Cute as a button!
Thank you so much, oddly I don’t work at this – I’m the witness that experiences and expresses. But your words mean a lot to me (“You write on this subject more meaningfully than anyone I’ve ever read.”) The knowledge that I’m touching another who understands, in their own terms, what I’m saying, is reward enough.
She was cute as a button (in personality too) but you’re the first to say Ann Romano. Thanks again, Stephanie – your words hit a chord in me too.
That is so sweet and so good in terms of the truth of it.
I loved the line, “there comes a tipping point”. When it becomes better to die then to live.
And yet to be the daughter or son. All parts want to say no, you can’t leave, some part of you knowing no matter how you protest it will still happen.
There does come a tipping point, and that decision is as specific to each of us, as our DNA. Thanks for commenting.